C♯ diminished arpeggio on drop D guitar

C♯ · E · G

The course explains what this page shows in Lesson 9 · The triad.

The notes

  1. C♯1
  2. E♭3
  3. G♭5

The C♯ diminished arpeggio is C♯, E, G.

You may also see it called 1 ♭3 ♭5.

On the staff

C♯DEF♯GABC♯

On a treble staff, the C♯ diminished arpeggio is written C♯ E G.

The solid notes are the C♯ diminished arpeggio. The pale notes are the rest of C♯ locrian, the larger scale it is carved out of, so you can see which notes it leaves out.

Why the C♯ diminished arpeggio has this sharp

  1. C♯1
  2. T+S
  3. E♭3
  4. T+S
  5. G♭5
  6. 6
  7. C♯8

An arpeggio is a pattern of steps too, and this one is T+S T+S 6: a tone and a half, a tone and a half, three tones, and so on. T+S stands for a tone and a half, which is three semitones. 6 stands for a step of six semitones. The pattern is what gives C♯ diminished its sound, and it stays the same whichever note you start on.

This arpeggio has only three notes, so it does not use every letter. It is C♯ locrian with some notes taken out, and it keeps that scale's spelling exactly.

Apart from the tonic, no note needs a sharp or a flat, because every other letter already falls where the pattern needs it.

The C♯ diminished arpeggio is written with C♯. Only the tonic carries an accidental, and that comes from the key you picked rather than from the T+S T+S 6 pattern of steps.

The pattern of steps is the part of a scale that never changes. The letter names take sharps or flats to fit that pattern, and a key signature is a record of those sharps or flats.

On the piano

C♭2D♭3EF♭5G♭6A♭7BC♭2D♭3EF♭5G♭6A♭7BC♭2D♭3EF♭5G♭6A♭7BC♭2D♭3EF♭5G♭6A♭7BC1C♯D♯4F♯G♯A♯1C♯D♯4F♯G♯A♯1C♯D♯4F♯G♯A♯1C♯D♯4F♯G♯A♯C2C3C4C5C6

The keyboard shows the same three notes as a shape you can see. The coloured keys are the C♯ diminished arpeggio, and the pale keys are the rest of C♯ locrian.

C♯ diminished arpeggio on the whole neck

DADGBE123456789101112131415E♭3G♭5C♯1E♭3C♯1E♭3G♭5E♭3G♭5C♯1E♭3G♭5C♯1E♭3G♭5C♯1E♭3G♭5C♯1E♭3G♭5C♯1E♭3G♭5

24 notes of the C♯ diminished arpeggio are marked across six strings.

This is every place the notes of the C♯ diminished arpeggio fall on the drop D guitar, with each note's name and its scale degree. The roots are marked so you can find your bearings.

Position by position

Position 1 — starts on the ♭3
DADGBE234567♭3♭51♭3♭511♭3♭5
Position 2 — starts on the ♭5
DADGBE5678910♭5♭3♭51♭3♭3♭51
Position 3 — starts on the 1
DADGBE1112131415161♭31♭3♭51♭3♭5

The C♯ diminished arpeggio has three playable positions, at frets 2–6, 5–9 and 11–15.

Each shape starts on a different degree of the scale and fits inside five frets, so your hand can play all of it without moving.

One climb up the neck

DADGBE1011121314151617181♭3♭51♭3♭51♭3♭5TAB111410111412141715

The climb runs from fret 10 to fret 17 and plays nine notes.

This is one path from the lowest root to the top of the neck, and it plays each note once, never on two strings. It takes a different number of notes on different strings. The widest stretch on any one string is three frets.

The words on this page were written with the help of AI and may contain a mistake. Its diagrams are drawn by Everyfret’s own software. How Everyfret is made