D♯ half-diminished arpeggio on 5-string bass

D♯ · F♯ · A · C♯

The course explains what this page shows in Lesson 13 · Sevenths.

The notes

  1. D♯1
  2. F♯♭3
  3. A♭5
  4. C♯♭7

The D♯ half-diminished arpeggio is D♯, F♯, A, C♯.

You may also see it called 1 ♭3 ♭5 ♭7.

On the staff

D♯EF♯G♯ABC♯D♯

On a bass staff, the D♯ half-diminished arpeggio is written D♯ F♯ A C♯.

The solid notes are the D♯ half-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♯ half-diminished arpeggio has these sharps

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

An arpeggio is a pattern of steps too, and this one is T+S T+S 4 T: a tone and a half, a tone and a half, two tones, and so on. T stands for a tone, which is two semitones. T+S stands for a tone and a half, which is three semitones. 4 stands for a step of four semitones. The pattern is what gives D♯ half-diminished its sound, and it stays the same whichever note you start on.

This arpeggio has only four 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 a tone, so F has to rise to F♯.
  • C♯ — the flat seventh. The pattern needs two tones from A, but A to C is only a tone and a half, so C has to rise to C♯.

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♯ half-diminished arpeggio is written with D♯, F♯ and C♯. D♯ has its accidental because that is the key, and the other notes need theirs because the T+S T+S 4 T 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

CD♭2EFG♭5A♭6BCD♭2EFG♭5A♭6BCD♭2EFG♭5A♭6BCD♭2EFG♭5A♭6BC♭7C♯1D♯♭3F♯4G♯A♯♭7C♯1D♯♭3F♯4G♯A♯♭7C♯1D♯♭3F♯4G♯A♯♭7C♯1D♯♭3F♯4G♯A♯C0C1C2C3C4

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

D♯ half-diminished arpeggio on the whole neck

BEADG123456789101112131415C♯♭7D♯1F♯♭3A♭5C♯♭7F♯♭3A♭5C♯♭7D♯1F♯♭3A♭5C♯♭7D♯1F♯♭3A♭5D♯1F♯♭3A♭5C♯♭7D♯1A♭5C♯♭7D♯1F♯♭3A♭5

25 notes of the D♯ half-diminished arpeggio are marked across five strings.

This is every place the notes of the D♯ half-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 ♭7
BEADG234567♭71♭3♭5♭71♭3♭5♭7
Position 2 — starts on the 1
BEADG4567891♭3♭5♭71♭3♭5♭71
Position 3 — starts on the ♭3
BEADG789101112♭3♭5♭71♭3♭5♭71♭3
Position 4 — starts on the ♭5
BEADG101112131415♭5♭71♭3♭5♭71♭3♭5

The D♯ half-diminished arpeggio has four playable positions, at frets 2–6, 4–8, 7–11 and 10–14.

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

BEADG4567891011121♭3♭5♭71♭3♭5♭71♭3TAB475969711811

The climb runs from fret 4 to fret 11 and plays ten 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 two notes on every string. The widest stretch on any one string is four 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