• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Website of Steve Neff

  • BLOG
  • SHOP
  • MY ACCOUNT
  • RAVES
  • CONTACT

Search Neffmusic

You are here: Home / Jazz Lessons / Modern Improv / Diminished Blues Workout-Lesson 1
“Conquering the Diminished Scale-Lesson 2” has been added to your cart. View cart
Diminished Blues Workout-Lesson 1

Diminished Blues Workout-Lesson 1

Rated 5.00 out of 5 based on 1 customer rating
(3 customer reviews)

$9.99

Categories: Modern Improv, The Blues Tags: blues, diminished scale, modern improvisation, video lessons
  • Description
  • Reviews (3)
  • Lesson Sample

Description

Diminished Blues Workout Lesson 1 is a series of lessons to thoroughly teach you how to use the diminished scale effectively over dominant chords and diminished 7th chords. Instead of just talking about how to use the diminished scale we are actually applying it to a standard 12 bar blues and using this form to master it’s use and application. This is a great lesson series if you know your diminished scales but have always been shaky on where and when to use them.

In lesson 1, I demonstrate where in a D blues to use these scales and then show you how to construct them and think of them while you are improvising. The goal of this lesson series is for you to integrate these cool sounding scales and patterns into your existing improvisational vocabulary in a way that sounds authentic and convincing. Walk through this series with me and you will never be hesitant about where and how you can use the diminished scale again! (36 Minute Video Lesson, Diminished Blues Workout Lesson 1 PDF in C.Bb and Eb)

3 reviews for Diminished Blues Workout-Lesson 1

  1. Avatar
    Rated 5 out of 5

    Ron – November 12, 2015

    Hello Mr. Neff,
    just purchased your Diminished blues‏ workout lesson, LOVE IT!!
    Thanks
    and keep up the great work!!!!

  2. Avatar

    Dietmar (verified owner) – May 20, 2016

    Hi Steve, i purchased this lesson recently and i like the practical hints you give here.
    I am a Hobby saxophone Player. I try to incorporate Vb9 and dim chords into my blues
    playing. Unfortunately i suffer mostly when i try to use These scales together with Blues playalongs because it is so difficult for me to time These scales correctly into the corresponding beat. To say it simple i loose control during improvisation and often miss the beat where to apply the dim scale or Vb9 scale. this is much more a Problem for me compared to noodling pentatonic or blues scales all over 12 beats. 🙂

    • Steve

      Steve (verified owner) – May 27, 2016

      Hi Dietmar,
      It sounds like you need to do more practicing with lines of a certain length. For example practice just playing one measure of eight note diminished line resolving to beat one of the next measure. Do that over and over again until you don’t have to count but are feeling it. Then try a 2 measure lines resolving to beat 1 of measure 3. Once you have the 2 measure feel down it’s a lot easier to think of a blues as 6 sets of 2 bar lines or 3 sets of 4 bar lines. The key is getting to the point that you feel it. If you have to count then you are not there yet. Steve

  3. Avatar

    Dietmar floegel (verified owner) – May 27, 2016

    Thank you very much. Yes, often things are so simple and thinking complicated makes it too difficult to proceed 🙂

Add a review Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Lesson Sample

Related products

  • II-V-I Altered Scale Mastery-Lesson 1

    II-V-I Altered Scale Mastery-Lesson 1

    $9.99
    Add to cart
  • Conquering the Diminished Scale-Lesson 2

    Conquering the Diminished Scale-Lesson 2

    $9.99
    Add to cart
  • Diminished Scale 7th Chords Lesson

    Diminished Scale 7th Chords Lesson

    $9.99
    Add to cart
  • Diminished Patterns-Lesson 3

    Diminished Patterns-Lesson 3

    $9.99
    Add to cart

Primary Sidebar

Cart

Search Products

COMPLETE LESSON INDEX

PRINTED BOOKS


NEFFMUSIC PRINTED BOOKS

Testimonials

I am enjoying your style of teaching, and you’ve done a great job with the videos….good sound quality and well constructed lessons.  Balances the more guitaristic material found on the majority of guitar based programs.  Jazz vocab is what I’m all about at this point in the journey.  I especially dig the fact that you’ve studied with Bergonzi…helps me see his voluminous output in a more bite sized way.

Milton
Hey Steve, My name is Jason Freese and I play keyboards and sax in the band Green Day.  I grew up taking sax lessons from Eric Marienthal when I was a kid and got out of it for a long time. I ran into you on youtube while searching for sax stuff. I bought a whole bunch of your lessons and have been loving it! Thanks! Here is my wikipedia so you can see the albums I’ve played on….Thanks again. It’s sparked my interest in practicing again.   Jason
Jason Freese (sax player for Green Day)
Thank you so much for the great job you are doing to help further our jazz studies. Though I make my living as a repairer of musical instruments I am a student of jazz and have been fortunate enough to be involved with a big band and a combo for the last several years. As my children began to leave “the nest” I had decided to dedicate the next half of my life to a more serious study of the sax but I didn’t know exactly how I would go about doing this until a friend of mine turned me onto your si… Read more
Jon
For anyone living in remote areas away from live jazz sax teachers, Neff is the way to go. In fact this is a great resource for anyone seriously interested in mastering the sax. I’ve never been disappointed in a lesson.
Oliver

Hello Steve,

I just want to say thank you so much for your unbelievable work, it is just mind opening, thanks for sharing it.

Wolfgang from Berlin

Wolfgang from Berlin
Thank you for the wealth of helpful lessons you’ve provided over the years.  I truly feel as though it has improved my playing more than the 4 years I spent at Berklee… and that’s not a slight on the school as I loved my experience there.
John
John
Hi Steve, I have been shedding your materials for quite a while now and I love them! They are extremely well organized and presented and there are tons of ’em! I really appreciate your methodical approach and find myself referring students to your resources often.  Thanks so much!  
Kenyon Carter
I’m an experienced player in the pop/soul/funk areas of music and, previously, classical.  Over the decades I’ve been playing, I’ve always felt that I could do what I needed in those styles of music.  However, recently I began to feel limited by my use of the same old licks. When I discovered Steve Neff’s website, and heard the audio examples based on the exercises in his books, I realized they were what I needed.  I purchased all of them and have been working on them since.  It’s very hard work… Read more
Paul

Hello Steve,

I have not received my alto yet but have already gone through 14 lessons. I love your approach, style, knowledge and competence. I now regret so much to have stayed away from playing the sax for the past 45-50 years…(I am 65).  But It is never too late to get back to your first love. After 23 years in compuer sciences and 22 years in finances…I am now back to music for the rest of my life.

Doing some research on the net, I found this:

http://forum.saxontheweb.net/showthread.php?1… Read more

Claude
Steve- I joined your site this month and have downloaded 4 lessons and also purchased your new book and video on diatonic patterns. I just want to say I am very pleased with your approach and teaching techniques. I am getting back into playing after laying off for some time. The information you offer on your site is of great value and I am enjoying being a member. Thank you for what you are doing for the saxophone community.
Tony

Featured Lessons

  • Mastering the Dominant Pentatonic Sound over a Blues (Digital PDF Book) Mastering the Dominant Pentatonic Sound over a Blues (Digital PDF Book)
    Rated 5.00 out of 5
    $19.99 Original price was: $19.99.$14.99Current price is: $14.99.
  • The Secret to Modern Outside Jazz Lines Lesson-Minor The Secret to Modern Outside Jazz Lines Lesson-Minor $9.99
  • Creating Modern II-V-I Lines with Simple Pentatonics Lesson Creating Modern II-V-I Lines with Simple Pentatonics Lesson
    Rated 5.00 out of 5
    $9.99
  • The Best Embouchure for Tone, Intonation and Endurance Lesson The Best Embouchure for Tone, Intonation and Endurance Lesson
    Rated 4.91 out of 5
    $9.99
  • The Secret to Altissimo (no one has ever told you about before) Lesson The Secret to Altissimo (no one has ever told you about before) Lesson
    Rated 4.75 out of 5
    $9.99
  • Lesson Series Deals-Save Big on Select Lessons

Product Categories

Recent Reviews

  • Practicing Double-Time Licks Lesson Practicing Double-Time Licks Lesson
    Rated 5 out of 5
    by Az Samad
  • Bebop Scale-Altered Scale II-V-I Practice Lesson Bebop Scale-Altered Scale II-V-I Practice Lesson by Noah
  • Mastering the Dominant Pentatonic Sound over a Blues (Digital PDF Book) Mastering the Dominant Pentatonic Sound over a Blues (Digital PDF Book) by Andy
  • Mastering the Dominant Pentatonic Sound over a Blues (Digital PDF Book) Mastering the Dominant Pentatonic Sound over a Blues (Digital PDF Book)
    Rated 5 out of 5
    by Russ

Top Rated Products

  • Mastering the Major Bebop Scale & Sound (Digital PDF Book) Mastering the Major Bebop Scale & Sound (Digital PDF Book)
    Rated 5.00 out of 5
    $14.99
  • The Style of Dexter Gordon-Lady Bird Lesson 1 The Style of Dexter Gordon-Lady Bird Lesson 1
    Rated 5.00 out of 5
    $9.99
  • Tune of the Week-Days of Wine and Roses Lesson Tune of the Week-Days of Wine and Roses Lesson
    Rated 5.00 out of 5
    $9.99

Footer

Recent Comments

  • Johnny Hedlund on The Boston Sax Shop Red Label Custom Tenor Saxophone Reeds Review
  • Darin on Revisiting a Lamberson J7 Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece Review
  • John Demsher on Theo Wanne Brahma Gold Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece Review
  • Angelo Yodice on The Boston Sax Shop Red Label Custom Tenor Saxophone Reeds Review
  • Jack Tyler on The Boston Sax Shop Red Label Custom Tenor Saxophone Reeds Review

Top rated products

  • Mastering the Major Bebop Scale & Sound (Digital PDF Book) Mastering the Major Bebop Scale & Sound (Digital PDF Book)
    Rated 5.00 out of 5
    $14.99
  • Tune of the Week-Softly as a Morning Sunrise Lesson Tune of the Week-Softly as a Morning Sunrise Lesson
    Rated 5.00 out of 5
    $9.99
  • The Style of Dexter Gordon-Lady Bird Lesson 1 The Style of Dexter Gordon-Lady Bird Lesson 1
    Rated 5.00 out of 5
    $9.99
  • Tune of the Week-Days of Wine and Roses Lesson Tune of the Week-Days of Wine and Roses Lesson
    Rated 5.00 out of 5
    $9.99
  • Tune of the Week-Invitation Tune of the Week-Invitation
    Rated 5.00 out of 5
    $9.99

Product tags

alto sax alto saxophone approach notes audio lesson bebop scale beginner beginner saxophone blues blues licks blues patterns blues scale blues scales diminished scale dominant chords ear training fundamentals II-V-I improvisation jazz improvisation jazz lines jazz patterns jazz sax jazz saxophone jazz standard jazz standards licks Mastering the Blues Scale Michael Brecker modern improv modern improvisation online lesson patterns playing outside practice habits reading music sax basics sax lessons saxophone scales smooth jazz steve neff tenor sax tenor saxophone video lesson video lessons
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • SUPPORT

Neffmusic © 2005–2025