Pattern 1. Begins on Blow, Slide Out

Pattern 2. Begins on Blow, Slide In

Pattern 3. Begins on Draw, Slide Out

Major Scales on Diminished Tuned Chromatic

I found it help to get really familiarise myself playing in Major scales in each pattern, then working off that to flatten notes to accidentals to play in different scales. Having a strong grounding playing in Major keys, and knowing the chromatic scale inside and out ie. knowing there's an accidental between every natural note except between B & C, and E & F, gave me a solid base to spring off when it came time to learn to play in other scales, modes and playing over changes. So I've included charts of each tuning, showing the three patterns for playing major scales.

Read the charts by following the colour coding demonstrated in the legend (under every layout). Each colour corresponds with a consecutive note of the diatonic scale, there are seven notes in a diatonic scale: '1' is the first or tonic to '7' the leading note. It is worth paying extra attention to tonic, third and fifths, when playing you can use them to mark chord changes, and playing appegios, with every pattern they lie side by side. For each of the three major scale patterns on Diminished there are four corresponding keys, all that you have to do is select which of the notes you mark as the tonic. Transposing couldn't be easier on the chrom!

Each pattern is simply the combination of which hole you play, whether you blow/draw and whether you press the button or let it out for any particular note to work your way through a key. When you know a scale you can then play a song in that key by constraining yourself to that pattern of playing. You can also quickly transpose to other keys by either shifting which note is your tonic and/or by changing to another pattern.

C Diminished also Eb, F#, A

G Diminished also Bb, Db, E

B Diminished also D, F, Ab

C Diminished 16 Hole Chromatic

B Diminished 16 Hole Chromatic

Bb Diminished 16 Hole Chromatic

Lay of the Land on a C Diminished Chromatic

What isn't so obvious in the above charts, is the simple patterns repeated over each octave. For blow slide out, blow slide in, draw slide out, and doubling up on blow slide out: draw slide in, you'll see there are two shapes left to right: the first found at thrice for pattern 1 & 3, and twice for pattern two, two notes you play, and two notes you don't. The other which appears once for two patterns and twice for pattern 2, is three notes you play and one you don't. I've found this is a useful way to familiarise yourself with the patterns, and form a mental picture of it, regardless of key or which layout you use.

The following charts show each of the three patterns over three octaves of a C diminished 12 hole chromatic to illustrate what I mean.

C Diminished Pattern 1, key of C

C Diminished Pattern 2, key of Db

C Diminished Pattern 3, key of D

Blues Progression Maps
for the
Diminished Chromatic Harmonica