Harmonic Minor Scales for Metal Guitar

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Gary Schutt and we are going to be talking about harmonic minor scales. Thanks to heavy rock, harmonic minor scales have become quite popular. It is a very dark, mysterious, eerie Middle Eastern kind of scale. It is based on a minor scale. This is A-minor; a very sad scale. What harmonic minor is we are taking from the 7th of that scale; G and we are sharpening it to a G-Sharp. We are raising the note so we have a natural 7th borrowed from the major scale. This is a cool run. Once you have the scale down, it’s 4th thread E-string, 5th thread E-String and 7ththread E-String and 5th thread A-string, 7th thread A-String, and 8th thread A-string. That is the first pattern and then we are going to repeat the same pattern of notes on the D string and G string and the same pattern of notes on the B string and E string. Play that coming back down too. It’s a little tricky so watch it. Harmonic minor is best when played over and E-major chord when the rest of the song is an A-Minor and suddenly go to the E-major. "