What is this eerie sounding scale?

[Phazma]

Hi,
I like working with alternative scales and I found out the name, origin etc of most of them, but there is one left that I encounter and use quite often, but can´t figure out what it is..

On C the "good sounding" notes are: C C# D# E F# G A A# (may also be flats, I don´t know)..

Here an example: first the scale, then a melody I made using most notes (later also with bichords) and a few other melodies I´ve heard somewhere..

http://www92.zippyshare.com/v/6HxF6XB6/file.html

Can somebody help me? Usually the melodies stay near to the root note (which is repeated quite often and sometimes the bass also plays only the root note).

Thanks in advance

[Michael L]

Diminished Blues Scale (0 1 3 4 6 7 9 10). There are some youtube videos on playing it with a stronger groove.

[Boardwalk]

C Diminished (h/w): (C-Db-Eb-E-Gb-G-A-Bb)
Scale Name: C Diminished (h/w)
Modal Group Name: Diminished (w/h)
Mode Sequence: 2
Degrees: 1-b2-b3-3-b5-5-6-b7
Note Names: C-Db-Eb-E-Gb-G-A-Bb
Note Count: 8
Others Names:
-Blues Diminished
-Dominant Diminished
-Half-Whole Tone
-Messiaen Mode 2
-Symmetric

Source: musicianshangout

[Phazma]

Thank you guys. Seems there are many ways to interpret the scale but I have finally a starting point to find out more about the scale

[Boardwalk]

Yes well, they call it diminished scale because you can have an accompaniment with diminished chords only. I suppose that's why it's also called Symmetric scale.

C-Db-Eb-E-Gb-G-A-Bb

C Eb Gb
Db E G
Eb Gb A
E G Bb
Gb A C
G Bb Db
A C Eb
Bb Db E

[jancivil]

Yes well, they call it diminished scale because you can have an accompaniment with diminished chords only. I suppose that's why it's also called Symmetric scale.

C-Db-Eb-E-Gb-G-A-Bb

No, that is not a true statement. I notice one name listed in here is 'dominant _'; so the scale on C as above is known to decorate C7, V of F. Do note that it contains that chord. It suggests the extensions b9; #9 (D#); b5 or #11; 13 in addition. So you'll hear it with some frequency in modern jazz. It's called symmetrical because it's semitone/tone all the way thru; confer Messiaen, a mode of limited transposition. IE: There is but one actual alternate 'mode' of it, here Db-Eb-E-Gb-G-A-Bb-C; past these two constructions is only redundancy.