Channel: New Secret Guitar Teacher

Category: Music

Tags: play harmonicsminoregyptianscalesecret guitar teachermelody with harmonicssecretblues using harmonicsguitar teachersecretrguitarteacherguitarnick minnionharmonicsmajorpentatonicnatural harmonicsomewhere over the rainbowharmonic

Description: Sample video from the Secret Guitar Teacher site secretguitarteacher.com Nick demonstrates three scales that are playable (more or less!) by using natural harmonics at frets 5, 7 and 12. Abridged transcript: In the last lesson of this series we looked at how to produce the easiest natural harmonics on the guitar. And we discovered that, as well as producing notes one or two octaves above the open string note by playing harmonics at frets 12 or 5, we could also produce a note a 5th above the open string note, by playing a harmonic at fret 7. So, in standard tuning we can produce all these different notes by using this technique. Which, when laid out in order gives us E F# G A B and D.The first scale that comes to mind when you see these notes is probably the E minor pentatonic scale . Notice the rather odd zigzag pattern that we have to follow to play these notes in ascending order. This is probably the hardest thing about using harmonics in this way – we have to learn to override our normal sense of which way is up and which way is down on the fretboard. And I find a good trick to help you learn to work with this scale is to alternate between playing normal notes on the E minor pentatonic scale like this…and then try and echo the phrase with the harmonics. Another scale we can play with these notes that has a similar zigzag pattern is the Egyptian scale in A. You may easily mistake this for a major or minor pentatonic, but it is actually very slightly different from either of these. You can see in this comparison table that the Egyptian scale includes the 2nd note of the Major scale like the Major pentatonic does, but then it flats the 7th - the G instead of G# - like the minor pentatonic does. Most significantly, it omits the 3rd altogether. In terms of tonality then, it could probably win a prize for being the most amenable scale of all – It works in harmony with the A Major chord , the A Minor chord A dominant -especially ninths and elevenths and of course both types of suspended chords Sus 2 and sus 4. Finally, let’s have a look at the G major scale. This cannot be done properly without cheating of course, because we are missing the C note. But if I play it like this…You have to be listening very carefully to notice how I cheated. I simply include the C note as a normal fretted note here at fret 8 on the top string. The tone is such that it takes a sharp ear to pick up this cheat. The pattern is quite a bit more complicated than the other two scales I have shown you, so let’s show it to you in close up. Unfortunately, this scale has limited application when it comes to playing whole melodies, as it only works over one octave and most tunes tend to use notes from outside these confines. But it can be quite effective as an intro to play just one segment of a melody using harmonics and then revert to normal notes for the remainder maybe like this. Anyway, I‘ll leave it to you to explore and create some ideas of your own, based on these scales and do let me know what you come up with. See you again soon!