Here’s how it works …

Chords produced from the parent C major scale:

C – Dm – Em- F – G – Am- B dim – C

The “A” natural minor harmonies:

Am- B dim – C– Dm – Em- F – G – Am

Notice how the natural minor has the same harmonic structures are the major scale only in a different sequence.

The perfect cadence challenge …

In ‘C” major the strong sense of closure is produced by the “G” moving to the “C” (5 – 1 progression); whereas in natural minor version the Em to Am (5- 1 in the natural minor) produced a weak sounding cadence.

The solution:

Musicians solved the problem by sharpening the leading note (7th note) of the natural minor scale; by sharpening this one note they could change the 5th chord from a minor to a major thereby creating the intended perfect cadence.

Here’s what happened …

Harmonic structures produced from the natural minor

Am- B dim – C– Dm – Em- F – G – Am

The new harmonic minor (so named because of the ‘new’ harmonies it created)

A- B- C – D – E – F – G# – A (notice the sharpened 7th note)

Produced these chords …

Am – B dim – C aug – Dm – E – F – G# dim – Am

As you can see the 5th chord in the harmonic minor progression is now a major chord and a whole new world of harmonic and melodic possibilities has been created for the creative musician to explore.

We will begin our connected learning by identifying the most commonly used minor scales:
natural
harmonic
melodic

You may know many other minor scales however these are the essential ones to learn and master. The first step is to be aware that some of these basic scales have several different names, in fact you may already know how to play them and be unaware of their aliases.

Important: The natural minor is also known as the relative minor and the aeolian mode; the structure of the melodic minor in classical music is different to the melodic minor in jazz music.

In order to grasp how minor scales work and why we have so many of them we must start at the very beginning with the major scale, all my examples will originate from the C major scale.

Here is a two octave C major scale: C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C

The natural minor is created by beginning on the sixth note of the major scale, hence the name relative as the natural minor contains the exact same notes as the major scale.

Two octave C major scale: C – D – E – F – G – [A] – B – C – D – E – F – G – [A] – B – C

The “A” natural minor : A – B – C – D – E – F – G – A

By stacking the individual notes of any scale in a constant intervallic format e.g., 3rds, 4ths etc., each scale will produce it’s own unique set of harmonies; it’s helpful to think of scales as horizontal musical structures and chords as vertical structures.

Since the natural minor scale has the same notes as it’s parent major scale no new chords are created.

Chords created from the C major scale: C – Dm – Em – F – G – Am – Bdim – C

A minor chords: Am – Bdim – C – Dm – Em – F – G – Am

In fact endlessly practising scales can stifle your creativity, too much scale playing can ‘free your fingers and freeze your brain’. To put things in the proper perspective playing scales is like a boxer skipping rope or punching a bag. It’s not the thing in itself; it’s preparatory to the activity.

Here’s three tips that will help you overcome scale paralysis, lock-jaw of the wrist and frozen brain syndrome and help you develop your own individual guitar style.

Tip 1: Learn the 19 basic moves to playing guitar: just as there are basic moves (skills) that a person must learn to play tennis, drive a car or learn to type playing the guitar involves 19 basic moves that when combined will enable the guitarist to play any guitar style.

Tip 2 : Learn to balance the three basic music resources : music consists of three basic structures (a) horizontal structure is a melody; (b) vertical structures are chords;(c) oblique structures are called arpeggios.

Listen to your favourite guitar player, study how they blend these music structures to create an interesting well balanced solo, too much of any one of these musical raw materials will spoil the solo.

Tip 3: All the material you will ever need is in the song: think about this for a moment; it seems like I’m stating the obvious … but how many players are aware of this, learn to play the melody of the song, use the intervals of the melody and capture the sentiment of the lyrics and your solo will be a natural development of the song not some random pile of disorganised notes.

I guess it just comes down to those that ‘have it’ can do it and
the those who ‘don’t have it’ are never are able to do it.

WRONG!!!

It all comes down to ‘those that know how to do it’, can do it
and ‘those who don’t know how to do it’ can’t. It has nothing to
do with natural talent or any other ‘old wives’ tales about
learning music.

Early on in my guitar playing adventures I was often puzzled by
certain individuals who were ‘not the sharpest knives in the
draw’, yet they could play really neat solos on the guitar,
whilst I (who was taking music lessons) could only play a few
kiddies tunes.

It turns out that a particular five note scale is the secret,
which five note scale? The minor pentatonic scale.

Technically speaking any group of five notes could be called a
pentatonic scale but the one that interest us as guitar players
is the minor pentatonic scale.

Extensive research has revealed that the notes of the minor
pentatonic scale can be found in almost every culture on earth,
this is truly a universal scale and of course explains it’s
popularity (both on guitar and in music.)

Music of the whole earth:

Here’s something to think about … in days gone by, people all
over the world working in isolation (from each other) arrived at
the same (or almost the same) set of notes.

Why five notes? … easy, people have five fingers.

Why do the notes(s) in the scale vary (slightly) from country to
country? Again, that’s an easy one, it’s because of the size of
the individual’s hand.

When a person in India is making a wooden flute the distance
between the holes will be slightly differ to a flute made in
Africa – it makes sense doesn’t it? The instrument maker would
craft their instrument to suit the size and shape of their
hand(s), this accounts for some slight variations in the same set
of ‘universal’ notes.

The amazing discovery is that people all over the world have been
searching for a particular set of notes that all feel ‘right’.
It’s as if we all come to the planet with the music inside us,
it’s just a matter of working out how to get the music out.

Now, let’s take a look at the famous five notes of the minor
pentatonic scale; I’ll use the “F” minor pentatonic scale for
demonstration purposes.

The notes of the “F” minor pentatonic are:

F minor pentatonic scale = F – Ab – Bb – C – Eb – (F)

If you are familiar with minor scales on the guitar you will
realize that the minor pentatonic scale could be created by
modifying the ‘natural minor scale’.

F natural minor scale = F – G – Ab – Bb – C – Db – Eb – (F)

By omitting the second and sixth notes we produce the “F” minor
pentatonic scale.

It’s no wonder the novice guitarist becomes overwhelmed, there
appears to be so much to learn; an endless array of guitar
techniques to master, piles and piles of scales and theory to
learn … the newbie player can literally spend a fortune on
books, DVD’s and lessons as well as spending countless hours of
practice time and never make any significant improvement in the
lead guitar department.

But what if there was a much easier (and better) way of learning
to play lead guitar? The good news is there are many ways to
learn to play guitar so let’s leave all that other hard, boring
and ineffective stuff behind and take fresh approach.

Lead guitar concepts:

Playing music has nothing to do with techniques; all the bends,
slides, finger tapping etc., in the world does not mean a thing
if what you are playing has nothing to do with the song.

When you solo or fill-in it should be a natural development of
the material IN the song, not something clever sliced onto the
song.

Music is about storytelling …

Always think of a song as a story being told and your role as a
musician is to participate in the musical conversation.

* play fill-ins etc., in the spaces when there is a break in the
vocals … use rhythmic phrases from the tune to help shape your
solo.

* analyze the intervals used in the tune … take these melodic
musical “cells” and feature these intervals in your solo that way
your solo will relate to the MELODY of the song.

* scales can free your fingers and freeze your brain, scales are
no more than your musical alphabet, in the hands of a skilled
musician scales can be music, just as a skilled writer can use
our English alphabet to communicate ideas.

* practice playing melodies by ear … try to find them by ear.

* practice playing a chord … then sing or hum a short melody
(approximately 4-6 notes) … next try to find your melody on the
guitar; with practice this will get easier.

As these ideas crystallize in your mind you will notice a marked
improvement in your guitar playing, your playing will naturally
become more musical, more logical and most importantly you will
play with more feel and you will begin to get an emotional
response for your listeners.

Bearing in mind that there is only one note difference between
the blues scale and the minor pentatonic scale it’s no wonder
guitar players struggle to find fresh new sounds; but what if
there was an easy way to play really interesting and original
blues solos on the guitar?

The good news is there are many ways to approach soloing here are
just a few ways to kick start your creative juices.

Since the key of ‘G’ is a popular blues key, I’ll present all my
examples in this article in the key of ‘G’.

Here is a typical 12 bar blues progression in the key of G.

Progression #1

G /// | G /// | G /// | G /// |

C /// | C /// | G /// | G /// |

D /// | D /// | G /// | D /// || G (last time)

Over these chords the soloist would most likely play either the
‘G’ blues scale or the ‘G’ minor pentatonic scale; let’s take a
look at the notes in both of these scales.

G minor pentatonic scale: G – Bb – C – D – F

G blues scale: G – Bb – C – Db – D – F

Notice how the only difference between these two scales is the
addition of the Db (the flattened fifth) in the blues scale.

Blues solo tip #1: modify the basic harmony

Simply changing the chord texture will evoke a different
emotional response from the soloist and a really simple chord
substitution for a 12 bar blues progression is to change the
basic major triads into dominant seventh chords; here is the same
progression modified as dominant seventh chords.

Progression #2

G7 /// | G7 /// | G7 /// | G7 /// |

C7 /// | C7 /// | G7 /// | G7 /// |

D7 /// | D7 /// | G7 /// | D7 /// || G7 (last time)

Blues solo tip #2: the many moods of the modes

Now that we have a different chord texture as a background we can
explore new scale resources. The Mixo-Lydian mode is the ideal
scale to play over dominant seventh chords.

* the dominant seventh chord is a four note chord created from
the four note layering of the major scale.

* dominant seventh chords are fifth chord of a major scale
(scaletone seventh harmonization of a major scale).

* the Mixo-Lydian mode is the fifth mode of the major scale.

Since each dominant seventh chord could be considered as the
fifth chord of a major scale it could be said that in a standard
12 bar blues progression that there are three ‘keys of the
moment’.

G7 = G Mixo-lydian mode: G – A – B – C – D – E – F – G (derived
from the C major scale); G7 being the fifth chord in the key of
C.

C7 = C Mixo – Lydian mode: C – D – E – F – G – A – Bb – C
(derived from the F major scale); C7 being the fifth chord in the
key of F.

D7 – D Mixo-Lydian mode: D – E – F# – G – A – B – C – D (derived
from the G major scale); D7 being the fifth chord in the key of
G.

If you combine these Mixo-Lydian modes with your blues and minor
pentatonic scale you will have many new and exciting sounds to
play over the blues chord progressions.

The first year of my guitar playing adventures consisted of
learning to play melodies (tunes) on the guitar, I’m very
thankful for this type of introduction to music as I have never
been asked to play a scale at any gig over the past thirty five
years of professional playing but I have played many requests for
tunes!

I’m mentioning this because there’s an over emphasis of the
importance of scales in guitar instruction; the type of thinking
that’s widely presented is that if you lock yourself in a room
practicing scales 24/7/365 for ten years you will be a ‘guitar-
god’.

Reality check: If you locked yourself in a room for ten years
playing guitar you would:

(a) be very hungry (and tired)

(b) quite crazy

(c) and still not be able to play any songs …

On the positive side you would be able to play lots of scales
(really fast).

A good working knowledge of scales and their musical application
is an important part of a well balanced musician’s education the
trick is not to become totally obsessed with them, scales are
merely your musical alphabet, nothing more, nothing less!

The purpose of this article is to drastically reduce the amount
of time you spend learning scales on the guitar.

Here’s the fastest way to learn scales on the guitar:

Tip 1: Decide which scale you need to learn, this will be
determined by the music YOU want to play; it’s pointless learning
some rare Egyptian scale if you only want to play the blues.
Don’t learn a scale just because it’s in a book or your
teacher/friend suggested it would be good for you to learn.

Remember: Five minutes though is better than five hours of
haphazard practice on guitar.

Tip 2: Learn the key signatures, know how many sharps or flats
are in each key e.g., key of G = 1 sharp (F sharp); key of F = 1
flat (B flat); key of D = 2 sharps (F sharp and C sharp) etc

Tip 3: Learn the name of the notes on the guitar fretboard; this
is the most important thing to do if you want to learn your
scales quickly; initially it will seems like it’s the slowest way
but believe me learning scale patterns and not having a single
clue what you are doing is a one way ticket to nowhere!

I know it’s common for guitar players to learn a pentatonic scale
pattern without:

(a) knowing the names of any of the notes they are playing in the
scale pattern under their fingers

(b) or without even knowing which type of pentatonic scale (major
or minor) they are playing.

Can you see how hopeless this scale pattern learning really is ?

Take your time learn the notes on your guitar, know the key
signatures and decide which scale(s) are relevant to your music
and you will literally save years of wasted practice and musical
frustration.

Most guitarists study for long hours and practice hard but never
really achieve that elusive country guitar sound, there is much
more to that country guitar twang than Fender Telecasters and
Twin Reverb amps.

Instead of just sticking with the usual major and minor
pentatonic scales another really cool idea is to mix other scales
into your playing such as the blues scale and the chromatic scale
let’s take a look at how all this comes together to create mind
blowin’ country guitar solos.

I’m going to create an interesting country guitar twist to a
standard scale by:

(a) Playing the scale descending instead of ascending

(b) Using some blues notes

(c) Adding a note or two from the chromatic scale

(d) Sprinkling the run with some open strings

(e) Playing some of the notes as pull- off’s

My basic scale will be the G Mixo-Lydian Mode.

Musical resources:

G Mixo-Lydian mode = G – A – B – C – D – E – F – G

G Blues scale : G – Bb – C – Db – D – F – G

G Chromatic scale: G – G# – A – A# – B – C – C# – D – D# – E – F
- F# – G

Applying this information to the guitar and remembering to learn
the run in small sections, playing everything slowly and
accurately then gradually linking the sections together until all
the sections flow; then and only then do we begin to crank up the
tempo.

Section 1: G – Gb (F#) – F – E

———————0–
–8-p-7-p-6———
————————–
————————–
————————–
————————–

Section 2: D – C – B

——————-
—————0—
–7-p-5———
——————-
——————-
——————-

Practice these two sections carefully aiming for perfect
synchronization of both hands before moving on to the third
section.

Section 3: Bb – A – G

——————-
——————-
————–0—
–8-p-7———
——————-
——————-

By the time you add this section to the other two sections your
run will sound complete; you could finish on the note ‘G’ however
I’m going to keep going to give you an idea how you might develop
this basic scale into a very impressive run.

Section 4: Gb (F#) – F – E – D

————————-
————————-
————————-
——————-0—
–9-p-8-p-7———
————————-

Section 5: C – B – Bb – A

————————-
————————-
————————-
————————-
———————0–
–8-p-7-p-6——–

Section 6: G

———
———
———
———
———
–3—–

The next project is to try and incorporate this run into your
solos, here are a couple of ideas for you to try:

Play this run over a pre-recorded chord progression something
like this will sound great.

| G /// | G /// | F2 /// | F ///  |

suggested chord voicings

G
–x——
–3——
–0——
–5——
–5——
–x——

F2
–x——-
–1——-
–0——-
–3——-
–3——-
–x——-

Another idea is to play the entire run as presented above only
instead of finishing on the ‘G’ note in section six play the ‘G’
on the third fret; sixth string then slowly slide up the sixth
string to finish on the octave ‘G’ note on the sixth string;
fifteenth fret.

optional ending for Section 6:

—————-
—————-
—————-
—————-
—————-
–3–s–15—

This idea is great for an ending; by sliding from the third fret
‘G’ to the fifteenth fret ‘G’ you will actually be playing a ‘G’
chromatic scale! What a neat way to finish a song; as you can
see there are many ways to use these cool country sounds on
guitar.

I know it’s happened to me, and when it did I came up with all
sorts of reasons why they could do that and I couldn’t! They must
(a) have a different tuning, (b) have more strings on they
guitar; (c) must be using some type of effect pedal etc., and so
the list went on and on; of course the truth was I didn’t have
the faintest idea how they were doing it!

The good news is … I’ve now worked how it’s done and I’m going
to share it with you.

The trick with country guitar playing is to incorporate lots of
open strings, hammer-on’s and pull-off’s which create the
illusion on extra notes being played; another thing that helps
create interest and excitement in country guitar solos is the use
of the blues scale and the chromatic scale.

By playing solos with heaps of open strings you create the effect
of musical ’space’ between the notes which has the effect on the
listener as if you are actually playing more notes than you
really are playing.

Here’s is a sample of the type of long ascending country run I’ve
been talking about using open strings, hammer-on’s and  pull-
off’s plus some notes from the blues scale and chromatic scale
laced into the run for good measure.

I’ve presented the run in sections containing three to four notes
since that’s the way the best guitarists learn all their music;
learn each section by playing slowly and carefully making certain
you are playing each notes cleanly and accurately.

Remember: speed comes as a by-product of accuracy.

Section 1: Notes = G – A – Bb – B

———————-
———————-
———————-
———————-
—–0-h-1-h-2—
–3—————–

Section 2: Notes = D – E – F

———————-
———————-
———————-
–0-h-2-h-3——
———————-
———————-

Section 3: Notes = G – A – Bb – B

————————
—————–0—–
–0-h-2-h3———
————————
———————–
———————–

Section 4: Notes = C – D – E

————-0—-
——————
–5-h-7——-
——————
——————
——————

Section 5: Notes = F – F# – G

——————-
–6-h-7-h-8—
——————-
——————-
——————-
——————-

The musical resources for this run are:

G Mixo-Lydian: G – A – B – C – D – E – F – G

G Blues: G – Bb – C – Db – D – F – G

G Chromatic scale: G – G# – A – A# – B – C – C# – D – D# – E – F
- F# – G

This country run was based on the G Mixo-Lydian mode, see if you
can find were I added the other scales.

There you have it, of course you can add echo, chorus and reverb
to enhance and color your solos but these electronic effects can
only enhance your musical content they can never replace your own
individual creativity on guitar.

Classical composers have often written melodies derived for one
scale with an accompaniment derived from another type of scale.

For example:

(a) The melody may be composed from notes of the “A” natural
minor scale: A – B – C – D – E – F – G – A

(b) The accompaniment or counter melody may be derived from the
“A” Harmonic minor scale A – B – C – D – E – F – G# – A

Notice how there is only one note difference between the two
scales; however that one note gives the composer several new
harmonies to work with; the result being lots of musical
surprises and interesting textures for the listener.

Now over to country guitar and hybrid scales: two scales that are
always good to use are the blues scale and the chromatic scale,
you can mix these two into almost any musical setting and today
I’m going to blend the blues scale with the Mixo-Lydian Mode for
a great country blues feel.

Step one – the thinking behind my scale choices

(a) I’m after a blues feel so I’m going to go with the mode that
produces the best blues flavor, the Mixo-Lydian mode, this mode
produces a ‘pure’ sound that works well with dominant seventh
type chords, the type of chords typically found in blues chord
progressions.

You might be surprised to find that I did not go with the obvious
choice the blues scale, the reason is I want to blend the blues
scale with the Mixo-Lydian mode to create a musical contrast
between the two scales.

Important: Too much of anything will spoil the effect; in this
instance if I began with the blues scale I won’t have nowhere to
go and the solo will soon become boring, however if I go with the
Mixo-Lydian mode I can I introduce the blues scale and when I do
it will sound even more ‘bluesy’!

My example will use the G Mixo-Lydian mode.

G Mixo-Lydian : G – A – B – C – D – E – F – G

And the G Blues scale …

By contrast the G blues scale contains the following notes:

G Blues scale: G – Bb – C – Db – D – F – G

Step two: applying to the guitar fretboard

The guitar is such a versatile instrument with multiple choices
of fingering and string combination’s there are many ways we could
play these scales but since I’m after a country guitar sound I’ll
be looking for three things: open strings where possible and
hammer-on’s and pull-off’s.

I’m going to break up this hybrid scale into small bite size
pieces that will give us a chance to perfect each section before
moving on to the next.

Part 1: The notes are – G – A – Bb – B

————————
————————
————————
————————
——-0-h-1-h-2—
–3——————–

Part 2: The notes are – D – E – F – G

———————-
———————-
——————-0—
–0-h-2-h-3——–
———————-
———————-

After you can play each part smoothly try joining both parts
together and instantly you will have a great country sounding
run. Keep playing the entire run over and over very s-l-o-w-l-y
until you can play seamlessly without thinking about. Now, it’s
back to slaving over that hot country guitar!