The half diminished scale or Sisyphean Scale is a seven-note

musical scale In music theory, a scale is any set of musical notes ordered by fundamental frequency or pitch. A scale ordered by increasing pitch is an ascending scale, and a scale ordered by decreasing pitch is a descending scale. Often, especially in th ...

. It is more commonly known as the Locrian 2 scale, a name that avoids confusion with the

diminished scale An octatonic scale is any eight-note musical scale. However, the term most often refers to the symmetric scale composed of alternating whole and half steps, as shown at right. In classical theory (in contrast to jazz theory), this symmetrica ...

and the

half-diminished seventh chord In music theory, the half-diminished seventh chord (also known as a half-diminished chord or a minor seventh flat five chord) is a seventh chord composed of a root note, together with a minor third, a diminished fifth, and a minor seventh (1,&nbs ...

(minor seventh, diminished fifth). It is the sixth mode of the ascending form of the

melodic minor scale In music theory, the minor scale is three scale patterns – the natural minor scale (or Aeolian mode), the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale (ascending or descending) – rather than just two as with the major scale, which a ...

(or

jazz scale A jazz scale is any musical scale used in jazz. Many "jazz scales" are common scales drawn from Western European classical music, including the diatonic, whole-tone, octatonic (or diminished), and the modes of the ascending melodic minor. Al ...

). : In the key of B, the half-diminished scale built on C is associated with C m⁷⁵, which functions as a ii ⁷ chord in minor (see

chord-scale system The chord-scale system is a method of matching, from a list of possible chords, a list of possible scales.Mervyn Cooke, David Horn (2003). '' The Cambridge companion to jazz'', p.266. . The system has been widely used since the 1970s and is "ge ...

References

Heptatonic scales Modes (music) Hemitonic scales Tritonic scales {{music-theory-stub