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How To Use Hybrid Scales To Turn Up The Heat In Your Solos

By Mike Hayes | June 26, 2010

The concept of using two or more types of scales in your guitar
solos is not a new concept however, how effective these hybrid
scales are in your solos will depend largely on your choice of
scales and how appropriate they are stylistically to the music
you are playing.

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!

Topics: Country Guitar, Modes, guitar scales | No Comments »

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