Diminished

The diminished scale comes in two varieties: the whole-half and half-whole. Both are atonal, with every second note spelling out a diminished 7th arpeggio.

Whole-half

The whole-half scale is a sequence of repeating whole and half steps. The notes, tones, and intervallic structure are shown below on E.

Below are positional and diagonal shapes for the G whole-half diminished scale. Similar to the idea in the whole tone scale, each can be shifted in increments of three frets without altering the pattern or tonality. Therefore, these effectively cover the entire neck.

Half-whole

The half-whole scale simply reverses the pattern of half and whole steps. The notes, tones, and intervallic structure are shown below on E. (Every second note still spells the E diminished 7th arpeggio as above).

Below are positional and diagonal shapes for the G half-whole diminished scale. Again, each can be shifted in increments of three frets at a time without altering the pattern or tonality. Therefore, these effectively cover the entire neck.