Using diminished scale,chords and arpeggios

hey dudes please help me figure out how can diminished things be used to get that "creepy" style in my sound. any informations about arpeggios, melodies and harmony is most welcome. a few examples would help too if you dont mind.

e|----------12-13-12-----------|
B|-------13----------13--------|
G|----14----------------14-----|
D|-----------------------------|
A|-12-----------------------12-|
E|-----------------------------|

heres kinda a creepy style arpeggio

don't be lazy. go work it out yourself, there is nothing we can tell you. you just have to tinker around with it to make it work like you want to.

thanks for nothing thats about the same answer i get everywhere :|

and i am not lazy

I would say get out of the rut of playing cowboy chords and 5th chords. start learning some 7ths dominite diminished even sus chords.

also start expermenting with some diffrent modes or scales.

I cannot really give you an equasion of home to make creepy music but this could give you a start.

To get you started:

In standard Iolian (sp?), the diminished chord is the 7th of the scale, so in C major, this is a Bdim. In this sense, there is so much tension caused by the diminished chord, it needs to resolve, this is because the B is so strongly attracted to the C in the scale. This gives you a few options:

A) You can use a Bdim as a turn around to lead into the I (C major) of the scale

B) You can use a Bdim to turn around to the Aeolian minor, (A minor) of the scale

C) You can use a Bdim to turn around to the Mixolydian mode (F major) of the scale


Make sure when using diminished chords you RESOLVE THEM CORRECTLY. You have to do a lot of playing to figure out how a diminished chord works without resolving correctly. The main focus you should have is resolve all the B's to C's. That is the simple part: there are a lot more rules with diminished to get the full classical effect of a diminished.

If you want an example of a diminished chord in use, listen to a lot of Pink Floyd songs, most of their turn arounds involve diminished chords to lead into the I or vi of the scale.



Hope this helps!

JustJeff thanx alot this sure helps. It's the kind of explanation i was seeking. Thanks again

Wow you can go and look up tabs for yngwie malmsteen (but his songs aren't very good melodic wise since he goes for speed rather than beauty) or I suggest Jason Becker's Perpetual Burn or Altitudes. Those songs have a lot I mean a lot of arppeggios diminished and minors because they are neo-classical metal.

yngwie isn't very interesting.

listen to buckethead and see if you can find some of his tabs. buckethead can play as beautifully as he can play fast.

yeah, but from wut ive head he doesnt do both very much

if you want creepy sounding arpeggios just use chromatacy(if thats how you spell it) try using minor arpeggios like this

d-----------------15-19-15----------15-18-14----------14--------
a--------------17----------17----17----------16----16-----------
f-----------16----------------16----------------15--------------
c--------17-----------------------------------------------------
g--14-19--------------------------------------------------------
c---------------------------------------------------------------

and you are being lazy asking for help here

i would "awake" this post by putting further questions. i studied a little and i found a very good book tough there is a subject that i would like to learn about more. the Locrian mode has much dissonance so i guess this could lead me to a creepy sound but i didnt get examples because it said its vrey hard to compose with this mode. so if anyone would give me more examplex and maybe explain me how using that can be more melodic i would appreciate. some of your own examples would be very good if they fit my description :D.

The Harmonic minor scale has that kinda creepy tone. At least in my opinion