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Metal Scales?


Jcm800_6550

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You can cover a lot of ground with the blues scale - effectively a pentatonic with the b5 - as long as you know all 5 positions and there's not much you couldn't cover Metallica-wise with that knowledge. Beyond that, definitely learn your major scale modes - the 6th mode, Aeolian is natural minor - and for the more 'eastern' sounding stuff, look into harmonic minor and it's modes. Jazz melodic minor if you wanna go further that way.

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this - but, learn WHEN to use each of those 7 modes.

 

 

That is when it gets tricky. It is much harder to understand soloing over the changes and going from mode to mode vs knowing the patterns and staying in 1 key but moving around on the fretboard.

 

Frank Gamballe explains it pretty good. Get his vids.

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Also,

Keep in mind the minor pentatonic is simply one of the minor flavored modes (Dorian, Phrygian, Aeolian) without the 2nd and 6th. The major pentatonic is simply one of the major flavored modes (Ionian, Lydian, Mixolydian) without the 4th and 7th.

One of the cool exercises I went through was learning how to convert the minor pentatonic to each of the minor sounding modes. For example:

Minor Pentatonic to Dorian -- Add the 2 and the 6 to the minor pentatonic
Minor Pentatonic to Phrygian -- Add the b2 and the b6 to the minor pentatonic
Minor Pentatonic to Aeolian -- Add the 2 and the b6 to the minor pentatonic

You can do the same thing with the major pentatonic.

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penetonic gets you pretty far if you know how to use it. All scales will... its just a matter of {censored}in with them til you find out what works for you. i say {censored} with E minor/G major and an E penetonic scale and you can get a good ammount of metallica's solos. If you have no theory background, its hard to go into detail about what scales to use and why and where and all that. Find a couple scales that work (G Major/C Major which is the same as E minor/A minor) and use your ear to mess around with it.

if you learn the positioning of those scales all around the neck without looking... you can move those positions up or down the neck and play the same thing in a different key....

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I'd start with just the minor pentatonic, and the slight variations [added major 2nd, flat 5th, 6th, and other passing notes, etc.] You'd be suprised what you can all do with that. There's certain patterns and riffs that sound "more metal" whereas some licks just sound bluesy. So just experiment and see what sounds best. Tony Iommi is a great example of someone who can take a blues scale and apply it to metal.

Natural minor scale - this is a must for metal... Don't forget to learn all the different positions... Playing in one "box" is very limiting.

Harmonic minor and Phrygian Dominant - Another very poplular metal scale and mode. A great example of the Phrygian dominant mode is the solo for "Wherever I may Roam" by tallica. It has that very exotic, middle eastern vibe to it.

Every scale you need to know

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Hey Guys what are some good metal scales for megadeth-iron maiden- metallica-80 metal type stuff for soloing, because im using a blues pentatonic and that doesent work obviously, ive never been taught any theory so im not sure what to learn..

Thanks
:thu:



Pretty much everything Kirk Did was Pentatonic, you just need to learn to use them. All the major and minor scales and there modes have there place. my favorite Scale is the Harmonic Minor scale and it is very good for metal. Very dark and evil sounding.

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Pretty much everything Kirk Did was Pentatonic, you just need to learn to use them. All the major and minor scales and there modes have there place. my favorite Scale is the Harmonic Minor scale and it is very good for metal. Very dark and evil sounding.

 

 

To OP: Harmonic Minor IS very good for metal. not much different from a major scale other than the 7th note of the scale is augmented.

 

E F# G A B C D# E

 

just to clarify

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