[asimpletune]

Yeah, diminished 6th system basically “fixes” classical music theory IMO. Like, classical music theory has to bend over backwards describing very common and pleasant groupings of chords (think Debussy), but in BH stuff, by adding an extra note to the major scale, now all of that stuff is not only easy to explain it’s in fact very natural. What I like especially about it is how all the very diatonic stuff ends up being slight outliers (ie “borrowing” notes from neighboring diminished chords), while the combination of maj6 + dim is the standard. It creates very pleasing sounds.

[tonystride]

I haven't looked into this yet but is the added note you are talking about like the added note of the Major bebop scale between Sol & La? Or is it the sharp Fa of the Lydian sound?

[asimpletune]

Yeah, you add a sharp between the 5th and 6th scale degrees, making for 8 notes in total. Then if your harmonize that scale by playing every other note, you end up with alternating inversions of the root maj6 and the diminished chord.

[tonystride]

This is the theory behind drop 2 voicings is it not? Being that as you alternate b/w Maj & dim voicings you copy the top note of the RH in the LH, I like to add a chromatic flourish to the LH note and it gives you a very George Shearing sound.

But wait there's more! Not only does this function harmonically, it also functions melodically. The added scale tone makes it so that a chord tone ends up on every down beat when playing in eighth notes. I've actually found that it doesn't matter where you add that extra scale note, you can do it all the way up and down the piano anywhere you like as long as you get chord tones where you want them.

[merolish]

It looks like it's the major bebop scale, yes.