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 t ...

. It is more commonly known as the Locrian 2 scale, a name that avoids confusion with the diminished scale and the half-diminished seventh chord (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 al ...

(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).

References

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