Brecker Dominant-Diminished Pattern for Guitar(or any instrument)

Here are some more Symmetrical Diminished or Dominant-Diminished patterns taken from a solo by the late saxophonist Michael Brecker. As Brecker is using a lot of minor 6th intervals, probably considering the outside notes of first inversion triad, these fit fairly comfortably on the guitar. The pattern is used here as the notes from the altered C13(b9) chord in order to resolve nicely to the IV chord in a C blues. Use any Pentatonic, Blues Scale, Mixolydian, etc. licks for the first 3 bars, and then lean on the Dominant-Diminished patterns for the I-IV resolution.

Notice that taking the same lick/pattern and moving it up or down a minor 3rd still yields the same scale, with different notes on the strong beats.

All notes of the scale have a note a minor third higher or lower within this scale. That is what makes it symmetrical.


Leave a Reply