Why is Everybody Playing this New Scale? (REVEALED!)
Surprisingly, very few guitar players are aware of this scales unique musical possibilities. But, thanks to what you're about to learn in this lesson, you'll gain a new sense of knowledge for its sound.
PENTATONIC MODES:
Guitar players will tend to learn about the Pentatonic as one of their very first scales. And, it does work well as a scale to help players with being able to build a better understanding of the neck and it teaches players how to start learning how to play melody.
The flip-side to catatonic scales is that many guitar players do not realize that there are "other options," for going about using the Pentatonic Scales intervals, (as modes).
The Pentatonic (Major and Minor) will provide guitar players with a great stimulus for musical growth and after guitarists have adapted to its sound, they can try something very different with it. This secondary approach is called, "Pentatonic Modes."
One of the more unique Pentatonic Modes is the 2nd Mode of Major Pentatonic. It is often referred to as the "Oriental Indian" scale. This scale is unique because it does not have a third, so it is neither major nor minor.
This lesson will provide guitar students with ideas for the; application, scale shapes and general music theory for the second mode of the Major Pentatonic Scale (Oriental Indian Scale).
ORIENTAL INDIAN SCALE:
I was asked a question in the comments of one of my videos recently that caught my attention. The question was:
“There’s this new scale I keep hearing everybody play all the time. I learned the notes, they are D, E, G, A, and C. What scale is this, and why is everybody playing it all the time?”
What we have here is something very interesting. It’s based on the concept of modes, but it’s dealing with the rare idea of “Modal Pentatonics,” That scale, (as it’s laid out in the viewers question) is actually called the Oriental Indian Scale.
Most of those “Scales of the World,” are actually just Modes of the Major Pentatonic, (the top of the heap when it comes to the most popular scales that are ever used in music).
That’s why it seems like everybody is playing this scale, because they are!
Let’s learn how to use this unique Pentatonic mode, because it creates some really cool options for us in music!
If you stick with me till the end, I’ll demonstrate it by improvising over an example progression that you can learn and try doing yourself - at home.
LEARNING THE NOTES:
1). The first thing that we’re going to do is isolate the notes from the root of “D” and limit the note layout that’s possible with this scale to just one fret-board region.
2). What’s unique about this scale is that it has no third interval. Look at how the intervals come together off of the root of “D” to only connect with the scale degrees of the; 2nd, 4th, 5th and Minor 7th intervals... There’s no quality!
ORIENTAL INDIAN SCALE HAS NO QUALITY:
With the idea of quality in mind, when we analyze the degrees, we discover this scale has no connection to Major or Minor.
This means that it can function in three ways; over suspended ideas, as well as, over both Major (incl. Dominant 7), and also over Minor tonality (incl. Minor 7), backing harmonies.
Coming up next:
I’ll go over a couple of, “in-position scale patterns.”
But first - here’s a really important message (below) about a promotion I’ve organized for all of my online students:
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 my Tee-Spring store, I’ll send you free copies 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.
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3). Let’s run through our first in position pattern for the “Oriental Indian” scale. Or, we could also call it the 2nd degree mode of the “Major Pentatonic.”
However you decide to name it, here’s what this scale shape looks like when it’s built off of a 5th string root of “D” in the 5th position…
4). Next, let’s run through another pattern of this scale on the neck. This time we’ll take it off of the “D” note located at the 6th-string tenth fret based out of the 7th position on the neck…
APPLICATION:
The idea of using a scale that has no quality, (a scale that’s neither Major nor Minor), using scales like this - might be a rather foreign playing concept to a lot of guitarists out there.
To get around this, what we can do is practice using this scale in three ways to help us learn to apply its sound.
The first way is through suspended chords, plus there’s also using them over Major, and also Minor sounds.
I’ve put together a chord progression that does all 3 of these, and I’m going to use this scale over it, and have some fun making up some improvised ideas using the second mode of the Major Pentatonic, the; “Oriental Indian Scale.”
JAM-TRACK JAM:
