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Exotic Scales

7 July 2010

Scales, scales, scales. They are what makes the world go around. Without them we would have to rely on boring creativity and originality. (Just kidding.) Having a healthy dose of scales at your disposal is essential to becoming a good guitarist and composer. Scales open up compositional doorways that might otherwise be closed to us [...]

Improvising Pentatonics

8 June 2010

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I’ve been digging into pentatonics since starting my new practice regimen for my Six-Month Challenge. I’ve mostly been starting with Jerry Bergonzi’s “Pentatonics” book, which is very good. There are a lot of very cool pentatonic applications over certain chords that will give some very interesting sounds. I’m going to show you a few, but [...]

Melodic Minor Scale Applications, Part 1

12 March 2010

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Melodic Minor Scale Applications, Part 1

Last month, Fretterverse guest author Dr. Matt Warnock introduced us to “that other minor scale,” the Melodic Minor scale. Because it’s such a highly-versatile scale with lots of applications, I would like to start a series of posts on some of the different ways it can be used. If you are not familiar with the [...]

That Other Minor Scale: Melodic Minor Scale Fingerings for Guitar

1 February 2010

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That Other Minor Scale: Melodic Minor Scale Fingerings for Guitar

The melodic minor scale is commonly used in jazz and classical music and to a lesser extent by shred and metal guitarists. While most people are familiar with the Aeolian, natural, minor scale, the melodic minor scale remains a bit of a mystery for many players. In the following four examples we will take a look at some of the common, and not so common, ways to finger the melodic minor scale.