Diminished Scale Patterns & Licks 
Taming the Saxophone:
Exercises & Patterns:
- Fingering Exercises (1)
- 1|1-1|1-2|1-3|1-4
- Fingering Exercises (2)
- 2-1|2-2|2-3|2-4
- Cycle of 5ths
- 3-1|3-2|3-3|3-4
- IIm7-V7-Is
- 4 |4-1|4-2|4-3|4-4|4-6
- Chromatic
- 5-1|5-2|5-3
- Studies in 4ths
- 6-1|6-2|6-3
- Diminished Patterns
- 7|7-1|7-2|7-3|7-4
- Whole Tone Patterns
- 8-1|8-2|8-3|8-4
All of these in full (and many more) in the book:
DIMINISHED SCALE LICKS
The diminished scale can be very useful. When applied to a dominant 7 it includes several nice extensions and chromatic notes: the b9, b10, #11 and 13 so can be used with a plain dominant 7 or one with those extensions. Although the diminished scale can obviously have any root note, there are only three sets of fingerings to learn. (See Scales for Improvisation in the Jazz section). Each diminished scale is based on one of the four notes of a diminished chord and the interval structure is Tone-Semitone-Tone-Semitone-Tone-Semitone-Tone-Semitone. Ideally you should think of the correct enharmonic spellings, which would vary depending on each dominant 7 chord, however while learning the basic diminished scales it’ easier to use whatever seems simplest. Here I have mostly followed the convention of sharps ascending and flats descending, but have used B instead of Cb.
NEW! TAMING THE SAXOPHONE
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All the fingering exercises are available in book format. These contain expanded versions of the online exercises (many of them in all keys) and also a section on tone exercise. 144 pages of fun!
