Diminishing Returns?

Struggling with half diminished chords and scales? Here is a lovely tip courtesy of a bass playing friend Martin. Firstly, half diminished chords can be found at the start of a minor II V7 I so they are pretty common. There are different ways of showing them, sometimes its a "m7b5" or sometimes its that circle with a line through it "ø"

The tip? Go up from the root half a step (a semitone) and play a major scale starting from that new note. Incorporate the root as part of the scale... hey presto. 

So an Em7b5 (or Eø) becomes F (semitone up) major. Play the E (root) as the leading note.

E F G A Bb C D E is the half diminished scale. Thanks Martin!!!