Channel: New Secret Guitar Teacher

Category: Film & Animation

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Description: More info at: secretguitarteacher.com There are a range of minor scales used in music and it can sometimes be quite confusing understanding how they relate to each other. In this lesson I’d like to take you on a slightly unusual tour of six of the most commonly used minor scale types, and show you how they can be viewed as being on a sliding scale of tonality from ‘almost major’ to ‘half-diminished’. So, here you can see them laid out in that order. But, so that we all end this lesson in a cheerful mood, we’ll work our way through the list from bottom to top, starting with the minor scale with the highest number of flatted notes: the Locrian mode. Remember, the formula tells us how to alter a Major scale. So, you can see that this scale has no less than five of its notes lowered a semitone compared to the A Major scale. So, that can be fingered like this 1 2 4 1 2 4 1 3 - if we want to play it off the E string with a forward diagonal pattern, and to extend into the next octave, we can use a backward diagonal 3 4 1 4 1 4 1 4 with a shift back a fret on each of the top three strings to complete a 2-octave pattern. To help you appreciate the different shades of sound each of these scales has, I am going to improvise with them over the same simple backing. So, I have recorded a backing track of a typical vamp in Am that just jumps back and forth between Am7 and Bm7 something like this. So, you can hear quite a few tensions in that scale when used straight over chords diatonic to A minor. Overall, it produces quite a dark, slightly sinister sound doesn’t it? Next, we have the Phrygian mode…This has four altered notes and I would finger this like this off the sixth string in the forward diagonal 1 2 4 1 3 4 1 3 and like this off the fourth string in the backward diagonal 3 4 1 3 1 2 4 1 to complete a two-octave pattern. It’s not easy to find examples of this scale being used in modern music although some Heavy Metal Bands like Metallica make good use of it. But due to its atmospheric feel, It does occasionally feature in film scores. Near the start of the Fellowship of the Ring – Part 2 of Lord of the Rings - you can hear the violins playing this haunting phrase which uses the phrygian mode in B. Let’s see if I can transpose that to A and use it as a basis for jamming over my backing track . Next, we have the most commonly used 7-note minor scale – the Aeolian mode, also known as the Natural Minor Scale. Which has just three flatted notes relative to the parallel Major scale. Here’s our basic first position two-octave fingering for that 1 3 4 1 3 4 1 3…3 1 3 1 2 4 1 2 4 with a positional shift between strings 3 and 2. This is the scale we are probably most used to hearing and to many it will simply, sound minor. Now we start heading more in the direction of the Major scale by restoring the Major sixth note to create the Dorian mode. So, this scale has only two altered notes the flat 3rd and flat 7th. The lower octave is fingered like this off the E string 1 3 4 1 4 1 2 4 Notice the shift of hand position to accommodate the major 6th note. The top octave from the D string looks like this 4 1 2 4 1 3 4 1 again there’s a shift of hand position needed to make the fingering flow smoothly This scale has just a hint of a Jazz sound to my ears, although it is used extensively in most genres, simply as a variant on the Natural minor scale. Next, we come to the Harmonic Minor scale …which also has two altered notes – the flat 3rd and the flat 6th – so you could say we have temporarily flatted the 6th again but, by restoring the more potent 7th note to the Major, we have taken a step closer to the Major scale. The lower octave is fingered like this off the E string 1 3 4 1 3 4 2 3 . Then we need to shift our hand position down a fret to cover the top octave by fingering 4 1 2 4 2 3 1 2 off the D string. This scale has a distinctively Middle-eastern or oriental sound to my ears. As we come to the last minor scale in our demonstration, we have replaced all the major scale notes apart from the most crucial note – the third. Ultimately, you can mess around with all the other scale notes, but the third is the one note that really does divide major from minor. The melodic Minor scale is simply a major scale with a flatted third. And because it is so close to being a major scale, when used in this context it sounds relatively light and happy. Now this lesson is intended to give a you a very brief glance at each of these scales and it is important to understand that each of these has a wealth of specific applications you can explore. If you have found this little taster lesson interesting please head on over to the Secret Guitar Teacher site, sign up for a free trial membership and gain access to our range of guitar lessons designed to make you an intelligent Guitar Player. See you again soon!