So in my last post, I shared with everyone the generated printouts of the various scales that I’ve produced via the lessons that I’ve had from my teacher over the last year and half (Mick Radcliff). My motivation for the last post was that Mick was teaching me about a new scale (new to me) called the Harmonic Minor Scale.
My observation of the Harmonic Minor Scale is that it’s first based on the Modes (Ionian, Dorian, …) but is shifted. For instance the first note of the Modes begins with Ionian where as the first note of the Harmonic Minor Scale begins with Mode 1 which is based on the Aeolian form with an important difference.
The important difference is that the seventh note of the scale is sharped. This continues for each mode in the Harmonic Scale. So Mode 2, which starts with note 2 still has the seventh note of the scale sharped and so on.
My other observation for this scale is the tonality of it. Of the scales that we have gone through, this scale is the most emotive and evocative. I like an occasional sad song but mostly I’m about up beat and happy songs but I can really see the advantage of the Harmonic Minor Scale because you can really put your heart into it. It just produces some amazing sounds and that is just the scale so I can just imagine some talented improve work behind it!
Anyway, I hope that those of you who play guitar or hope too can give this a try. Check out my downloads section (see the top of my Blog page) and you can find the Harmonic Minor Scale in a generalized form (no key) and then in the keys of A, B, C, E, and G. Enjoy!
Playing guitar is a great way to have fun. There are a number of reasons for learning scales, one being that they are fundamental to learning the theory of music. Knowledge of the guitar scales will enhance our ability to play riffs on the guitar.