D♭ diminished arpeggio on 5-string bass

D♭ · F♭ · A𝄫

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

The notes

  1. D♭1
  2. F♭♭3
  3. A𝄫♭5

The D♭ diminished arpeggio is D♭, F♭, A𝄫.

You may also see it called 1 ♭3 ♭5.

On the staff

D♭E𝄫F♭G♭A𝄫B𝄫C♭D♭

On a bass staff, the D♭ diminished arpeggio is written D♭ F♭ A𝄫.

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

Why the D♭ diminished arpeggio has these flats

  1. D♭1
  2. T+S
  3. F♭♭3
  4. T+S
  5. A𝄫♭5
  6. 6
  7. D♭8

A scale is a pattern of steps, and this one is T+S T+S 6: a tone and a half, a tone and a half, 6, 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 D♭ diminished its sound, and it stays the same whichever note you start on.

This scale has only three notes, so it does not use every letter. It is built on D♭ locrian, and the notes it shares are spelled the same way as they are there.

The pattern still does not fit the plain letters. If you walk the pattern up from D♭, two letters cannot keep up:

  • F♭ — the flat third. The pattern needs a tone and a half from D♭, but D♭ to F is only 4, so F has to fall to F♭.
  • A𝄫 — the flat fifth. The pattern needs a tone and a half from F♭, but F♭ to A is only 5, so A has to fall to A𝄫.

None of those accidentals was a choice. Once you pick the note to start on, the pattern decides the rest, and a key signature is a record of the result.

The D♭ diminished arpeggio is written with D♭, F♭ and A𝄫. D♭ has its accidental because that is the key, and the other notes need theirs because the T+S T+S 6 pattern of steps cannot be spelled from D♭ with plain letters.

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♭2E𝄫♭3F♭F♭5A𝄫♭6B𝄫♭7C♭C♭2E𝄫♭3F♭F♭5A𝄫♭6B𝄫♭7C♭C♭2E𝄫♭3F♭F♭5A𝄫♭6B𝄫♭7C♭C♭2E𝄫♭3F♭F♭5A𝄫♭6B𝄫♭7C♭C1D♭D♯4G♭G♯A♯1D♭D♯4G♭G♯A♯1D♭D♯4G♭G♯A♯1D♭D♯4G♭G♯A♯C0C1C2C3C4

The keyboard shows the same three notes as a shape you can see. The coloured keys are the D♭ diminished arpeggio, the pale keys are the rest of D♭ locrian, and you can click any key to hear it.

D♭ diminished arpeggio on the whole neck

BEADG123456789101112131415D♭1F♭♭3A𝄫♭5D♭1F♭♭3A𝄫♭5D♭1F♭♭3A𝄫♭5D♭1F♭♭3A𝄫♭5F♭♭3A𝄫♭5D♭1F♭♭3A𝄫♭5D♭1F♭♭3A𝄫♭5

28 notes of the D♭ diminished arpeggio are marked across five strings.

This is every place the notes of the D♭ diminished arpeggio fall on the 5-string bass, 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 1
BEADG2345671♭3♭51♭3♭51
Position 2 — starts on the ♭3
BEADG5678910♭3♭51♭3♭51♭3
Position 3 — starts on the ♭5
BEADG8910111213♭51♭3♭51♭3♭5

The D♭ diminished arpeggio has three playable positions, at frets 2–6, 5–9 and 8–12.

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

BEADG23456789101♭3♭51♭3♭51♭3TAB25347569

The climb runs from fret 2 to fret 9 and plays eight 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.