metal scales

[mike-o]

I've done some searching, but came up with nothing. What scale(s) are metal solos based off of? by metal I mean stuff like malmsteen to metallica to anything inbetween. The word arpeggio has come up a little... but I have no idea what that means.

[el_grapadora]

well i play metal, and i usually find myself in various minor scales. Check out Natural Minor (1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7), Harmonic Minor for a yngwie-esque feel (1 2 b3 4 5 b6 7), Phrygian (1 b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7) or Phrygian Dominant (1 b2 3 4 5 b6 b7) for a Lamb of God feel.

A Natural Minor
e|--------------------------------5-7-8-----|
B|--------------------------5-6-8---------- |
G|---------------------5-7------------------|
D|---------------5-7-9----------------------|
A|--------5-7-8-----------------------------|
E|-5-7-8------------------------------------|

A Harmonic Minor

e|--------------------------------5-7-8-----|
B|--------------------------5-6-9---------- |
G|---------------------5-7------------------|
D|---------------6-7-9----------------------|
A|--------5-7-8-----------------------------|
E|-5-7-8------------------------------------|

A Phyrigian

e|--------------------------------5-6-8-----|
B|--------------------------5-6-8---------- |
G|---------------------5-7------------------|
D|---------------5-7-8----------------------|
A|--------5-7-8-----------------------------|
E|-5-6-8------------------------------------|

A Phyrigian Dominant

e|--------------------------------5-6-9-----|
B|--------------------------5-6-8---------- |
G|---------------------6-7------------------|
D|---------------5-7-8----------------------|
A|--------5-7-8-----------------------------|
E|-5-6-9------------------------------------|

I think all those are right, forgive me for any mistakes, its been a long week. Have fun dude.

[mike-o]

thanks man

[judge_gideon]

BTW:

el_grapadora wasn't just posting "a" scale, but THE KEY OF A when he labeled them - "A Phrygian Dominant"

[Whale and Wasp]

a lot of metallica songs use the blues scale or the minor pentatonic scale

[judge_gideon]

Oh, don't forget the KING of metal scales -

A Minor Pentatonic
┌─────────────────────5─8───────┐
├─────────────────5─8───────────┤
├─────────────5─7───────────────┤
├─────────5─7───────────────────┤
├─────5─7───────────────────────┤
└─5─8───────────────────────────┘

And it's cousin:


A Blues
┌─────────────────────5─8────────┐
├─────────────────5─8────────────┤
├─────────────5─7─8──────────────┤
├─────────5─7────────────────────┤
├─────5─6─7──────────────────────┤
└─5─8────────────────────────────┘

I find that these two scales are found within the context of heavy metal solos more than any other scale.

Hammering, picking, sliding, bending, and combining these notes in different ways creates the grungy tonal characteristics of many metal licks.

[judge_gideon]

The word "arpeggio" means the same thing as a chord with a small exception.

A chord is made by "skipping" notes in a scale.

For example, the scale:

A,B,C,D,E,F,G

...is A minor (also known as C major)

If you play an Am chord, it would be the 1, 3, and 5 of this scale...

A,C,E

...skipping the B & the D

A chord is playing those notes SIMULTANEOUSLY, meaning, all at once in one pick motion - BANG!

But, an arpeggio is playing those same notes in the chord, INDIVIDUALLY, one at a time.

[mike-o]

so the "aint talkin bout love" riff is an a-minor arpeggio?

[judge_gideon]

mike-o, Yes, the opening notes in "aint talkin" are an A minor arpeggio with a palm mute and heavy phase (MXR Phase 90)

[bannedlawl]

I've always been fond of the E Phrygian/A minor scale.

[judge_gideon]

Here's one which finds its way into some of the metal songs - sort of an "Apocalyptic Doom" sound, or Middle Eastern flavor.

• = root
• = 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th

For power chord jams focusing on E & F, I sometimes use this "E" Byzantine scale, which provides Emaj7, and Fmaj7 tetrads:

E Byzantine
...................12
┌───┬─•─/─•─┬─•─┬───┬───┬─•─┐
├───┼───┼─•─┼─•─┼───┼───┼───┤
├───┼───┼───┼─•─┼─•─┼───┼───┤
├───┼───┼───┼─•─┼─•─┼─•─┼───┤
├───┼─•─/─•─┼───┼─•─┼─•─┼───┤
└───┴─•─┴─•─┴─•─┴───┴───┴───┘
...................12
┌─────────────────────────────────11─12─13─16 ───┐
├─────────────────────────────12─13 ────────────┤
├─────────────────────────13─14 ────────────────┤
├──────────────────13─14─15────────────────── ───┤
├────────11─12─14─15 ────────────────────────────┤
└─11─12─13─────────────────────────────────── ───┘

Two slides make this pattern comfortable to finger. There are more fingerings for Byzantian, by the way.

...continued on next post.

♪ ♫♫♪

[judge_gideon]

Here's Hungarian Minor, another scale which has an exotic eastern sound - kind a creepy if you are able to do it right. It sounds best if you are exaggerating an altered dominant E7alt resolving to an Am, preferrably to an Am(maj7), but a raw Am is nice too:

A Hungarian Minor
....................5
┌───┬─•─/─•─┬───┬─•─┬─•─┬───┐
├───┼─•─┼─•─┼─•─┼───┼───┼───┤
├───┼─•─┼─•─┼───┼───┼───┼───┤
├───┼───┼───┼─•─┼─•─┼───┼───┤
├───┼───┼───┼─•─┼─•─┼─•─┼───┤
└───┴─•─/─•─┴───┴─•─┴─•─┴───┘
....................5
┌────────────────────────4─5─7─8────────┐
├───────────────────4─5─ 6──────────────┤
├────────────────4─5───────────────────┤
├─────────────6─7──────────────────────┤
├────────6─7─8 ─────────────────────────┤
└─4─5─7─8───────────────────────────────┘

The two index finger slides make this one easy to manage as well.


♪ ♫♫♪

[PoWaToM]

A Blues
┌─────────────────────5─8────────┐
├─────────────────5─8────────────┤
├─────────────5─7─8──────────────┤
├─────────5─7────────────────────┤
├─────5─6─7──────────────────────┤
└─5─8────────────────────────────┘


I love that scale, it's the first one I ever learnt :D

[Pom-Bear]

Modes :confused: is that just playing a scale in a different order?


say


E minor Ionian (u start on E)

E Minor phygrian (ud start on G?)

[bannedlawl]

That E Byzantine shape looks similair to an augmented arpeggio.. Any relavance?

[poita]

Modes :confused: is that just playing a scale in a different order?


say


E minor Ionian (u start on E)

E Minor phygrian (ud start on G?)

You've got the right idea but you are naming the scale wrong.

There's no such thing as E minor ionian. I'm guessing you just mean E minor which is also called E Aeolian. The third mode of the E minor (or E Aeolian) scale is G major (or G ionian).

I think where you're getting confused is by thinking that ionian means the first mode of a scale. Ionian is the first mode of the major scale and that scale only. The first mode of the minor scale is Aeolian, which is also the 6th mode of the major scale.

[poita]

[EDIT] Sorry double post, damn server :D

[judge_gideon]

bannedlawl, Yes, good observation.

The E Byzantian scale contains the E augmented arpeggio.

The 1, 3, and b6 of the scale create it. Technically, an authentic augmented arpeggio is built by the 1, 3, and #5, but they sound identical - this is merely theoretical semantics.

E Augmented Arpeggio
...................12
┌───┬───┬─•─┬───┬───┬───┬─•─┐
├───┼───┼───┼─•─┼───┼───┼───┤
├───┼───┼───┼─•─┼───┼───┼───┤
├───┼───┼───┼───┼─•─┼───┼───┤
├───┼─•─┼───┼───┼───┼─•─┼───┤
└───┴───┴─•─┴───┴───┴───┴───┘
...................12
┌───────────────────12──16 ───┐
├────────────────13──────────┤
├─────────────13─────────────┤
├──────────14────────────────┤
├─────11─15 ──────────────────┤
└──12────────────────────────┘

...continued on next post.
♪ ♫♫♪

[judge_gideon]

Also, try to accentuate the two maj7 arpeggios encapsulated in E Byzantine. This lends itself to a harmonic device while playing over alternating E & F

chords:

Emaj7 Arpeggio
...................12
┌───┬─•─┬─•─┬───┬───┬───┬─•─┐
├───┼───┼─•─┼───┼───┼───┼───┤
├───┼───┼───┼─•─┼───┼───┼───┤
├───┼───┼───┼─•─┼─•─┼───┼───┤
├───┼─•─┼───┼───┼─•─┼───┼───┤
└───┴───┴─•─┴───┴───┴───┴───┘
...................12
┌───────────────────11─12──16────┐
├─────────────────12────────────┤
├───────────────13──────────────┤
├──────────13─14 ────────────────┤
├─────11─14 ─────────────────────┤
└──12───────────────────────────┘

...continued on next post.
♪ ♫♫♪

[judge_gideon]

Fmaj7 Arpeggio
...................13
┌───┬─•─┬─•─┬───┬───┬───┬─•─┐
├───┼───┼─•─┼───┼───┼───┼───┤
├───┼───┼───┼─•─┼───┼───┼───┤
├───┼───┼───┼─•─┼─•─┼───┼───┤
├───┼─•─┼───┼───┼─•─┼───┼───┤
└───┴───┴─•─┴───┴───┴───┴───┘
...................13
┌───────────────────12─13──17────┐
├─────────────────13────────────┤
├───────────────14──────────────┤
├──────────14─15 ────────────────┤
├─────12─15 ─────────────────────┤
└──13───────────────────────────┘

These are definately cool.
♪ ♫♫♪

[m30wc0w]

Blues is the building block of metal and rock. Just study the Minor scale.