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.
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 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!
There are several Blues guitar riffs that guitarists will generally play for too long of a period, and they should do their best to stop them, and I’m going to show all of you how in this video.
As a matter of fact, I’m not going to leave you hanging either, but rather, I’m going to show you a way to more effectively play more common Blues alternatives that will give you a better sound and a more relaxed result...
On top of all that, I'm also going to provide you with three ways to expand your Blues playing through Dominant 7th, 9th and 13th chords as well as, how to play matched bass-line riffs and blues turnarounds. WATCH THE VIDEO:
In this lesson I’m going to demonstrate a group of Blues ideas that are common to the Blues style. Unfortunately, a lot of guitarists will play Blues either with a number of bad habits, or they'll just play far too simplistic of Blues ideas for too long of time before they’ll either correct the bad habits, or before they expand on simple Blues principles to be able to take those Blues ideas further, (and achieve a more interesting sound).
So, in my focus for this lesson, I not only want to help you guy’s correct ideas, but I also want to give you guys more Blues guitar alternatives, for more interesting Blues playing! So, let’s get started with a correction that will help you the next time you’re playing on a Blues jam using the traditional Blues Boogie riff... 1). Blues Boogie example
Common approach (inefficient)
Better approach (more efficient)
Another problem that guitar players tend to have when learning to play Blues is centered around only playing the Boogie pattern (and sticking with that pattern), as pretty much their one and only rhythm concept for Blues. So, the next thing I want to cover is going to be based upon getting introduced to a couple of the most popular chords that are important for every guitarist who is interested in Blues rhythm guitar.
And, that is the movable “Dominant 7th” chords along with their poplar extensions of the 9th and the Dominant 13th…
2). The Dominant 7th Dominant 9th and the Dominant 13th 6th String Dominant 7th:
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 for this 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.
The next thing I want to cover is another Blues guitar concept that is sadly left to the back burner for too many guitar players that have an interest in Blues Guitar, it’s the Blues Bass line crossover riff.
I’ve got one of the more popular movable patterns here for you to learn and start applying into your playing right away. 3). Blues bass-line cross over riff
The final idea that I want to share with you has to do with a Blues concept that is all too often left over to the way-side (in many cases) much too long of a time, (and it’s too bad because this idea is so nice to know about as a Blues player), and it’s the idea we often refer to as the, “Blues Turnaround.” So, to wrap up the lesson, I’ve got a nice Blues Turnaround lick for you to learn that can be practiced and applied very quickly into your standard 8 or 12 bar Blues guitar jams.
4). Blues Turnaround
Are you over the age of 40 years old and you still can't play a scale on guitar? I'm sure you want to learn how to play a scale, so in this lesson, I’m going to show you a simple step by step scale study method that is guaranteed to help anyone to be able to start playing not one, but two neck patterns of a scale...
Surprisingly, getting started into learning scales is not something that is going to require you to study for hours on end, learning from endless sheets of TAB, or from pages upon pages of guitar neck diagrams.
It’s actually going to be quite the opposite! In fact, you’re only going to need to focus on 'one basic shape' across the upper fingerboard, and then another easy to play scale shape down in the lower region. That's it! WATCH THE VIDEO:
LEARNING A SCALE: In this lesson, I want to help students who are past their thirty’s, maybe in their 40’s or 50’s (or older), who’ve never learned how to play any scales.
Believe it, or not, there are a lot of older guitar students out there who’ve never learned anything about scales, and this lesson is going to be dedicated to helping all of you guys get started on learning this topic together. Sadly, this is more prevalent than you might think! In fact, when I was just recently purchasing my new Fender Telecaster, the guy who sold it to me, was an older gentleman who admitted that he had never spent the time to learn his scales either. So, let’s make sure that you learn how scales work on guitar! And, we’ll get things started here today by establishing our first scale layout for you - right here, right now…
SIMPLE SCALE (Shape 1). Our first scale layout will be a pattern that operates up higher on the guitar neck where most guitar solos are performed. Here’s how it sits on the fret-boar.
This pattern (above) is called the, “Major Pentatonic” shape. And, this shape uses 5 notes. Our naming note here, is “F.” This note is what is called the “Tonic,” (or sometimes it might be referred to as the, “Root” note). This is the note that ties our scale to the chord and it also represents the key that we would use to create melody lines and solos with. Pentatonic scales are great to learn at first because they are simple and they’re also effective scales for soloing. As, “BB King” once said, the Pentatonic scale has, “just enough notes to sound right, but not enough to get you in trouble.”
If we add just “two” additional notes into the Pentatonic, we get what’s called the full-scale, (sometimes it’s also called the diatonic Major Scale, or also the, “Major Key” Scale). Here’s how it looks on the neck, the full-scale added tones are highlighted in red for you.
Simple Scale (1) with additional key signature notes added...
NOTE: The additional notes added are "B♭" and "E."
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 for this 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.
SIMPLE SCALE (Shape 2). Now that you’ve learned the "F Major" scales in the upper area of the neck, I also want to show you a pattern (for this same scale), down in the lower and mid-region positions.
Here’s how our Pentatonic looks in the low area of the neck.
Just as we had done with the Major Pentatonic scale (when it was located up higher on the neck), we’re going to do the exact same thing with this lower pattern of the Major Pentatonic – we’re going to create a full 7-tone “Diatonic” scale from the 5-tone “Pentatonic” scale. Here’s the "two" added scale tones (B♭ and E), that will get added into the Pentatonic scale, (you’ll notice them highlighted on the fingerboard diagram below as red dots).
NOTE: The additional notes of, "B♭" and "E," create the "full diatonic" scale, (also known in music as the Basic Major Key scale of, "Ionian Mode").
SCALE APPLICATION: Once you learn the scale pattern shapes, the next step is to keep them in your memory. To do that you must start immediately applying them!
It is so vital to your long-term memory that you get some chord changes going on in the background so that the scales can start to get applied in a realistic way - as quickly as possible. Around the studio here, one of my favorite ways of helping students do this, is by sending them to a great web-site called, “Chord Chord.” Visit the site using the link below:
This lesson is all about the hardest thing that there is to learning scales. If you have trouble creating solos, it is more than likely because you are not aware of how to start understanding scale patterns on the neck in a more simple manner, and since you'd likely welcome an easy way to fix that, this video gets you started down the best path to fix this issue...
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WARNING: Far too many guitar students are using scale shapes that are too big for soloing at first try and doing this will most certainly hold you back.
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In this lesson, I’m showing a group of small major and minor scale patterns that can attack the most common flaws for new soloists to give players a more simplistic group of notes that are nicer to work with than the larger more vertical patterns that are found in most guitar scale books. WATCH THE VIDEO:
LESSON OVERVIEW: In this lesson, I’m also going to show you how to start into soloing by; using the first 5 notes of a scale, how to view the Pentatonic within those patterns, and how to think about other "Modes" of a key. When you apply this easy drill you will start to feel better almost instantly about what you're playing and you can work towards permanently fixing your bad soloing habits that are holding you back.
I get asked this a lot… “which scale should I learn first, what’s the best scale to start with, what scale will have me soloing the fastest?”
Guys really, there’s a lot to this whole “business,” of playing lead guitar, but the bottom line of effectively learning the scales, will all come back to only a couple of things. 1). Your ability to visualize and memorize the geometry involved with playing certain kinds of shapes on the neck. 2). How well you can comprehend the tonality (in other words the sound), that a scale produces so that you’ll be able to become the most proficient at actually using the scale to create music. We will begin by taking a close look at some Key of “A” Major scale patterns on the neck. Afterward, we’ll explore the shapes, and we’ll learn the reason behind why the scale is giving us a Major sound. Then, we’ll take things a step further, by learning how the Major sound can produce other sounds, called modes. A CLOSER LOOK AT SIMPLE-SCALES: 1). Key of “A” Major Scale located upon the 4th string’s Tonic (7th fret)
2). The “powerful” first 5 notes, and the awareness of the leading tone.
3). The benefits of having no ½ steps – the Major Pentatonic, (blue notes).
4). Visualized as an “interval template” that can be moved anywhere.
THE MAJOR SOUND: Major scale patterns and their backing (Chord) progressions, have a unique group of notes from the 1st to 5th tones that work together to promote the major sound quality. Once that interval pattern is committed to memory (the patterns shown above), it can be extremely helpful to use a backing set of chord changes for soloing on chord progressions that support that Major key sound.
Here’s a quick example progression in the key of “A” Major that applies the; first, third and fourth chords. They form a solid back-drop for practicing the use of “A” major’s 1st through 5th scale tones. Backing Progression:
____________________________________________________ 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 for my Phrygian Dominant video, I'll also throw in a breakdown of 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. ____________________________________________________
SCALE MODES: The next thing to understand is that every Major scale can produce other scales called Modes. A mode uses all of the same scale tones (from the same key), but we get a different sound character because we begin and end the playing, of the mode, off of another note (that’s NOT the root of the key). This means that if we were to select another tone from the notes of the “A” major scale, like for example the F#, we could build a new sound when we played off of that F# note!
5). Relative Minor tonality color (the 6th degree "F#" of the parent major scale)
6). Minor’s first 5 notes are very strong, plus the 6th offers more dramatic minor effects
7). Minor Pentatonic eliminates the ½ steps for greater melodic ease and control
8). Minor scales (just like Major) have an interval template that can operate anywhere!
9). Minor can exist off of the 4th, 5th and even off of the 5th string…
Knowing this information here, (about how the minor scale can operate as an easy to memorize minor scale shape on the neck) will help you to produce an interval oriented note layout, that’s easy to visualize, regardless of the level of skill you have with playing melodic ideas that fit into the Minor tonality.
For an example of this, I’ve put together a short Minor Key chord progression based off of the “F#” Minor scale and I’ll play you those chords right now. Plus, I’ll add some scale phrasing so you can hear the connection of the minor scale mixed in with the chord changes.
