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GMC Forum _ THEORY _ Guitar Scales Confuses Me
Posted by: Mark Vuorinen Jun 19 2013, 10:56 PM
Hi guys.
I just learned the 5 positions of the natural minor scale and played around with it for a bit. I am playing alot of symphonic metal and i know the harmonic minor scale is a great one for that genre.
i checked the scale out on this website, and got confused when this scale, because of the leaps. This made me unsure on how to practice this scale, and how to understand it, and basicly i just need some help understanding the theory of it.
I am really confused right now, and i am not sure why actually.
But if someone could help me get to understand the guitar scales a little better it would be so awesome
http://www.gosk.com/scales/harmonic-minor-scale-for-guitar.php
Btw - i am a big fan of Nightwish, so if you guys know what scales they are using to create there guitar solos and so, it would be a great help for me 
Posted by: The Professor Jun 20 2013, 05:58 AM
I just learned the 5 positions of the natural minor scale and played around with it for a bit. I am playing alot of symphonic metal and i know the harmonic minor scale is a great one for that genre.
i checked the scale out on this website, and got confused when this scale, because of the leaps. This made me unsure on how to practice this scale, and how to understand it, and basicly i just need some help understanding the theory of it.
I am really confused right now, and i am not sure why actually.
But if someone could help me get to understand the guitar scales a little better it would be so awesome
http://www.gosk.com/scales/harmonic-minor-scale-for-guitar.php
Btw - i am a big fan of Nightwish, so if you guys know what scales they are using to create there guitar solos and so, it would be a great help for me
Hey
the Harmonic Minor Scale is a cool sound, but can be tough with al the leaps that occur in the various fingerings for the scale.
I like to think of the Harmonic Minor scale as a natural minor scale with the 7th note raised by a fret, that way you can use all of your major mode fingerings, alter 1 note, and you get all of the notes for the 7 modes of the harmonic minor scale.
Check out this linke, you have to scroll down a bit, for more details and tab/notation for the fingerings of harmonic minor compared to the fingerings of the major modes to see what I mean.
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=47440
Hope that helps!
Posted by: Sinisa Cekic Jun 20 2013, 12:23 PM
Try to practice a combination of these two scales through Am/E7 chord progression, while play ascending A minor natural scale over Am chord and descending A harmonic minor over E7.It is very important to where and how to use it,and this is some good starting point 
Posted by: The Professor Jun 22 2013, 09:44 AM
That's a great exercise, taking a chord or chord progression and soloing over it with different scales in order to hear how they sound in a playing situation.
You might even try to just apply both scales to a minor chord at first, to hear how they sound over the same harmony, and then build it up to a progression from there.
Try this exercise for example:
1. Put on an Am backing track.
2. Solo over that chord using only A Natural Minor
3. Solo over that chord using only A Harmonic Minor
4. Solo over that chord using 8 bars per scale.
5. Solo over that chord using 4 bars, then 2 bars per scale.
6. Solo over that chord but move freely between the two scales in your lines.
Doing exercises like this well help you get the sound of both scales in your ears, as well as under your fingers, and then you'll be able to hear when the time is right to use either scale when soloing over a chord, progression or song.
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