Skip to content

C diminished (half-whole) scale

Symmetric8 notes · D♭ + E♭ + F♯ + B♭

Cdiminished (half-whole)

KeyboardClick a key to hear it

RootIn scale

Fingering guideOne octave · both hands

There's no standard one-octave fingering for C diminished (half-whole): its white keys don't fall where the thumb could pass under in even groups. Keep the thumb off the black keys and play it in short groups of two or three fingers.

Chords in the key

Stacking every other note of a diminished scale gives diminished chords: the scale holds two diminished seventh chords a half step apart.

Hand
Tempo
100 BPM

How to read a scale

Steps, degrees, fingers.

  1. The step pattern

    Every scale is a pattern of whole and half steps. C diminished (half-whole) goes H–W–H–W–H–W–H–W.

  2. The degrees

    Number the notes from the root: 1 C, ♭2 D♭, ♭3 E♭, 3 E, ♯4 F♯, 5 G, 6 A, ♭7 B♭. The degrees stay the same in every key, so a pattern learned in C works in any other.

  3. The fingering

    There's no standard one-octave fingering for C diminished (half-whole): its white keys don't fall where the thumb could pass under in even groups. Keep the thumb off the black keys and play it in short groups of two or three fingers.

All 216 scales

Every scale and mode on every root, each with its own page.

C

D♭

D

E♭

E

F

G♭

G

A♭

A

B♭

B

Practise it on a real keyboard.

Plug in a MIDI keyboard: the Melodio app shows every scale with its fingering and chords, and names what you play. Free, offline.

Download Melodio

Windows · macOS · Linux