Quoting Jazz Standards to Solo Melodically Over Passing Diminished 7th Chords

Playing over a passing diminished chord is tricky and many people (even the greats) feel the need to always arpeggiate it in improvisation, which can sound contrived and disrupt the melodicism of a solo.

One effective improvisation strategy is to learn the melodies of famous jazz standards that feature a passing diminished chord and quote the melody- either verbatim or with slight variation.  You instantly get a smooth, melodic line and the jazz fans in your audience may even recognize and appreciate the quotation.

Quoting melodies over passing diminished chords

Here are a few examples of jazz standards that feature passing diminished chords.

Have You Met Miss Jones (#1 passing dim7)

This is the simplest solution- just hang out on one note for the whole bar instead of arpeggiating the chord.  In this case you hit a common tone between the I and the #I dim7: the 5 of the FM7 becomes the #4 of the F#dim7.

All the Things You Are (biii passing dim7)

In "All the Things You Are," two notes are played over the passing dim7 chord.  As scale degrees of the dim7 chord, these notes are the #5 and #4.  The #5 is not a chord tone but provides really nice color over a dim7 chord, especially when you hang on it for awhile then resolve to a chord tone.

Corcovado (biii passing dim7)

In "Corcovado," the composer (Jobim) plays the the same phrase over the iii as the biiidim7.  As in "All the Things You Are," the phrase targets the two notes #4 and #5 (these work out to 4 and 5 over the iii).  Playing some repeated phrase over the iii and biii dim7 can be really effective, especially with these note choices as they are diatonic to the iii and contain a chord tone and color note over the passing dim7 chord.

How Insensitive

Another Jobim standard, "How Insensitive" also using a biii passing diminished chord.  And like "Corcovado," the same phrase is repeated over the iii and biiidim7 using the #5 color note over the dim7.  The difference between these two Jobim songs are that instead of alternating between the #4 (chord tone) and #5 (non-chord tone), "How Insensitive" alternates between the #5 (non-chord tone) and 6 (chord tone).  It's basically the same thing but moving the other direction.

When You Wish Upon a Star (biii passing dim7)

In this example, you're simply playing down the C major scale.  The melody is constructed in such a way that when the song runs over the passing dim7 chord, the melody hits the color note #5 and the chord tone #4 ("Corcovado" and "All the Things You Are" as mentioned above use these two same notes).  The composition is really good because the melody so seamlessly incorporates these great note choices over the passing dim7 chord.

Guilty (biii passing dim7)

Although the first chord is BbM7, it can be considered iii because Dm7 is really just BbM9.  Similar to "When You Wish Upon A Star," the melody line runs down the Bb major scale.  The melody hits the #4 (chord tone), #5 (non-chord tone color note), and 6 (chord tone) over the passing diminished chord.  Kind of a combination of the two Jobim songs above.

Night and Day  (biii passing dim7)

"Night and Day" pretty much ignores the passing dim7 chord.  It plays over the C major scale with some chromaticism, maybe you could see it as playing over a D bebop.  Or if you wanted to frame it by the dim7 chord itself, it would be starting on the major 7th, another non-chord tone color notes and descend chromatically to the #5.

Till There Was You (#1 passing dim7)

Like the Jobim tunes, "Till There Was You" repeats a simple phrase, creating tension over the passing diminished chord.  The scale degrees in relation to the passing diminished are #4-b3-3.

Other songs the provide more examples include:
Body and Soul
A Foggy Day
It Could Happen to You
Once I Loved

Other approaches for playing over a diminished chord 

Diminished Arpeggio

Of course you can always play a diminished arpeggio pattern over a dim7 chord.  Just don't play an arpeggio because that's the only thing you know how to play!

Embedded chords 

You can also play chords that are embedded in the half whole diminished scale.  For Ebdim7 the options are...
1. Ebdim7 Gbdim7 Adim7 Cdim7
2. EbdimMaj7 GbdimMaj7 AdimMaj7 CdimMaj7
3. D7 F7 Ab7 Bb7
4. D7b9 F7b9 Ab7b9 Bb7b9

Skip it

Who says you have to play over every change?  No shame in skipping the chord and often an overlooked strategy.