Re: [Harp-L] Coltrane half step riffs

["Eugene Ryan" <ryan.eugene@xxxxxxxxx>]

Tommy Lee Walker wrote:
> > talking about the half step playing.what trane did was play a dim half whole
> > over a dom 7th chord.

Ah, I get you now - thanks Tommy. Its the HW diminished scale - starts
with a half step instead of a whole step. It works over 7th chords..I
thought Mike was talking about playing an idea up a half step from
where you just played it.

Yep, the HW dim is good as it includes the root b9 #9 3 #4 5 6 b7 - it
is a little bit more "in" than the altered scale as if contains a
natural 5 and 6. Note that it contains the major 3rd and minor 7th
scale degrees - the definition of a 7th chord.

As it happens, I was messing around with recording myself last night
playing along with our old friend, Band-in-a-Box.  I just happened to
play the HW dim scale in this extract from time 6 seconds to 9
seconds.  You'll hear that pattern in jazz quite a bit, I've heard
Toots do it on record.
http://www.eugeneryan.com/jazzblues1.mp3

All the best,
Eugene