In last month’s column (“Augmented and Diminished Forms,” March
2011 PG ), we looked at how both diminished and augmented shapes
lie on the fretboard. We will follow that idea in its natural
progression by exploring how you can use these shapes to create
automatic Within one cluster, raising or lowering any single
tone results in one of two altered forms. When lowered a half-
step, the note becomes the root of a dominant 7th chord. If
raised a half-step, the note becomes the 7th tone of a minor 7b5
(or half-diminished) chord. First, let’s consider descending
alterations into dominant Much like the augmented phenomenon we
discussed last month, the diminished parental form produces two
important structures, and through gradual alterations they
continue to expand into variations. The diminished form shown in
Fig. 1 produces the following results: From the four tones (G,
Db, E, and Bb) found within it, the descending alteration of any
single tone by a half-step produces four different dominant When
the same chord