If you are wondering what the scale is that Millions of Guitar players are obsessed with, then you are going to want to watch this video. Seriously, even university music courses teach that this scale is one of the "most important" scales that you need to know!






It doesn’t matter which scales you know right now, or what scales that you are wanting to study next. The key to your long term permanent musical success lies much deeper. It lies within this scale that I'm about to show you - right here in this lesson!

If you enjoy Progressive Rock /Metal, Latin Music, Spanish Music or Neo-Classical (like Yngwie Malmsteen, Vinnie Mooore, and Tony MacAlpine), the fastest way to learn those styles won’t stand the test of time if you are unable to play this scale and keep it consistent within your approach.


WATCH THE VIDEO:




The Harmonic Minor Scale:
Today, we’re going to talk about a scale that guitar players really love playing. 

It’s a scale that has a fantastic sound and in fact this scale is an absolute must know scale if you’re ever playing; Progressive Rock, any Latin Music, anything Spanish sounding, and it’s also great for Neo-Classical music.

The scale I’m talking about is the, “Harmonic Minor Scale." And, this scale is one of the most simple and the easiest Minor scales to both use and to understand, (mainly because it’s a simple by-product of the notes from the Natural Minor scale).

In this lesson, I’m going to let you in on the secrets behind using Harmonic Minor. We’ll run through a couple of easy to use shapes and I’ll show you exactly how to start incorporating the Harmonic Minor scale into your playing.






ESTABLISHING MINOR:
Our first scale pattern will be the Natural Minor. This is an important place to start, since the Harmonic only alters one note, and we need to understand the location of that one note which will be altered.

Our pattern that we’ll learn for the Natural Minor will sit in the middle of the guitar neck off the 4th string’s, 7th fret. Here’s what it looks like…

Natural Minor: 4th String



Remember, this pattern is called the, “Natural Minor” shape. And, I want you to focus on this scales naming note, or what musicians call the scales “Tonic” (also sometimes called the scales “Root”). Let's learn one additional Natural Minor scale shape...

Natural Minor: 5th String 

 

The Tonic note - on your neck diagrams - are the notes that are circled dots.

In our case we’re dealing with the Tonic note of “A” so this means we have an “A” Natural Minor scale on the fingerboard.

Along with that, I also want you to focus on the scales 7th note as well, because we’re going to adjust the scales 7th degree to create Harmonic Minor.





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I wanted to take a minute to let you know, that if you want to learn even more about scales and theory I have a great offer for you.

With any donation over $5, or any merchandise purchase from either my Tee-Spring, or my Zazzle store, I’ll send you a free copy of THREE of my most popular digital handouts.

One is called, “Harmonized Arpeggio Drills” (it’ll train you on developing your diatonic arpeggios).

Another one is my “Barre Chord” Handout which includes a page showing all the key signatures along with a chord progression that applies barre chords.

Plus, you’ll get my Notation Pack! It has 8 pages of important guitar worksheets for notating anything related to; music charts, guitar chord diagrams, and TAB.

As a BONUS, (from my "Over 40 and Still Can't Play a Scale" video), I'll also throw in a breakdown of all of the chords that are diatonic to the "F Major" scale.

As an EXTRA BONUS for my Phrygian Dominant video, I'll also throw in a breakdown featuring all of the chords that are diatonic to the Phrygian Dominant scale.

Just send me an email off of the contact page of CreativeGuitarStudio.com to let me know about either your donation or your Merchandise purchase and I’ll email you those digital handouts within 24 hrs.          ____________________________________________________



CREATING HARMONIC MINOR:
If we adjust the “A” Natural Minor’s “seventh” note up a half-step, (which is the note of “G” moving up to “G#”), we end up with what’s called the “A” Harmonic Minor.

Here’s how it looks on the neck, the adjusted “seventh” tone is highlighted in green on your diagram…

Harmonic Minor: 4th String


Harmonic Minor: 5th String





Now that you’ve learned how the “A” Natural Minor can convert over to the “Harmonic Minor,” let’s next learn how this scale can be used to make music.






HARMONIC MINOR APPLICATION:
This scale is only applied very briefly in a melody. The reason is because its use is targeted over the fifth chord of a Minor key signature when that chord quality changes from Minor (Minor is the diatonic quality from the notes of the Natural Minor Scale), over to either Major or to a Dominant 7th chord, (Major and Dominant 7th are the qualities from Harmonic Minor's harmony). 

Before we get into using the Harmonic Minor scale, I want to establish a chord progression that will give us the correct situation for where we can use the, “A” Harmonic Minor Scale.


Key of "A" Minor - Chord Progression:



Now you have an understanding for what the correct group of chords sound like for applying the Harmonic Minor, (remember that it’s the 5th chord of the key converted to Major or Dominant 7th that makes everything come alive). 

In our example the 5th chord away from the Tonic - the “A” – of our example is an “E” chord, in our example it is “E Dom.7.”

This means that when the “E7” chord appears, (in our example it’s sitting in the 4th measure), during that 4th measure we can use the notes of “A” Harmonic Minor scale.

To demonstrate the sound of this scale’s effect, I’ve created a melody line that applies the unique raised 7th tone over that “E7” chord in the fourth bar of our progression. Learn the melody shown below and keep in mind that the 4th measure is the place for applying Harmonic Minor Scale.


Key of "A" Minor - Melody:









CONCLUSION:
Once you learn how easy it is to use the Harmonic Minor scale, the next step (the fun step) is to start practicing the scale in context! 

Once you can get some chord changes going on in the background, you’ll start to naturally hear all kinds of ways to use that raised 7th degree that happens from between the Natural Minor scale over to the “Harmonic Minor” scale.

Remember, it’s just one note that changes, between the two scales, (the 7th note),… but… the impact to the overall sound of the harmony as well as, the melody lines (that are composed or improvised). That effect can be really something else to hear musically when it happens!