Scary sounding stuff! As if diminished 7th arpeggios weren’t evil and twisted sounding enough for you, we’re going to combine them with chromatic runs using all 4 fingers. Inspired by Jeff Loomis, these types of insane diminished ideas will force you to re-think what is possible with diminished playing. All the examples in this lesson are based on F# Diminished 7th. Let’s Go!

Let’s start by looking at the different forms of Diminished 7th Arpeggios. Most of these ideas will use string groups D – G – B and G – B – E. Check out the diagrams below, this will make it more visual and make more sense. Part of the reason these ideas work so well is that we can ‘fill in the gaps’ in between the minor third interval from our index finger to our pinky on the highest string at the top of each arpeggio. This allows us to play a chromatic run really easily following the diminished arp. On top of this, because the diminished arpeggio inverts in minor thirds, we can blaze through these ideas all over the neck no problem at all by moving each shape a whole step and a half, aka minor thirds.