Yngwie Malmsteen's Scale Fingering Patterns

[Steve Mavronis]

This is a short scale lesson from my Yngwie Malmsteen 100% fan tribute page: http://home.comcast.net/~yngwie100/

Neoclassical guitar playing has a very distinctive sound. This is due in large part from use of the Harmonic Minor scale, which is also extensively used in classical music. It was truely the Heavy Metal scale of the baroque era! No wonder that it is the basis for much of Yngwie's musical style, guitar riffs and solos. Here are a few instructional illustrations that I made (over Yngwie Malmsteen's signature Fender Stratocaster) showing suggested Harmonic Minor guitar scale fingering patterns that Yngwie might use in the keys of E and A. Practice these by trying to combine both scale patterns 1 and 2 of each key up and down the fretboard, including other places not shown here where they also repeat 12 frets apart. Try to start on the key's root note (highlighted yellow) by sliding to and from the 1st and 7th note in the scale interval. You will find the 3 notes per string fingering patterns are very symmetrical and thus become easy to remember:

 

[ttosh]

Very cool, nice graphics which make the presentation very professional looking.

 

[hank]

cool. So I want to practice using this scale over my own recorded chord progressions.

Part I: Where do I start? What chords can I use? I don't really know how the scale and chords work together other than that chords in general are built by stacking thirds. Do you do the same (stack thirds) with the harmonic minor scale to get the "harmonic minor" chords?

Part II: Once I know what chords can be used my next question would be what are some typical neoclassical sounding progressions using those chords. And are there formulas (e.g. I-IV-V) or rules of thumb about what constitutes or makes a chord progression sound neoclassical?

 

[Steve Mavronis]

Hank, one of the reasons I posted this was to encourage discussion of how to apply using this scale, and even in combination with related scales like aeolian (natural minor) which is the same except the last note is 1/2 step lowered. I need help too with chords to play over and progression patterns. I hope others in the know can chime in here and teach us how to put it all together.

 

[degenaro]

Harmonic minor goes over the V chord...i.e.E harmonic minor over B7, A harmonic minor over E7. Or for the mode guys...E phrygian dominant over E7...
So typical progression would be E7 to Am, or E7b9 to Am7...over the E7 play A harmonic minor, over Am play A Aeolian.

Side note although most Rock guys think Yngwie when they hear harm. min, but my fave usage of it is when it doesn't sound like it fell off a Bach fugue...like Van Halen's Push Comes To Shove...

Some other uses for it...
stick a ii chord in front of the V chord..as in Bm7b5 to E7 to Am...A harmonic minor for the first 2 chords, A aeolian for the last.

Another popular use is over a diminished chord as in G# dim to Am...now the deal with a diminished chord is that it's build with stacked minor thirds, so the chord shape when moved up the fret board in minor thirds is still the same chord only a diferent inversion even though the fingering doesn't change. So G# dim. can also be thought of as B dim or D dim or F dim. So...here comes the fun part...a dim chord can be thought of as a 7b9 with the b9 in the bass...i.e. F diminished is the same as E7b9...
E7b9=E-G#-B-D-F
F dim=F-G#-B-D

And also the III chord in Harmonic Minor pops up at times...which in the case of A harmonic minor is Cmj7#5....which could be though of as...here comes the surprise E7#5...or more specifically E/C.

And lastly the "classical" use of harmonic minor with the chords going Am-Am/maj7-Am7. In ths progression the first and last chord you'd use A aeolian and for the middle chord A harmonic minor, where the chord once again functions as a V chord...as in
Am/maj7 notes...A-C-E-G#
E7#5 notes E-G#-C-D

So...remember to use harmonic minor when a dominant chord leads to a minor chord down a fifth. i.e. E7 to Am. And you have 90+% of all uses of Harmonic Minor covered.

 

[Steve Mavronis]

Ed, thank you very much!!!

I always wanted to know when it is best to switch between harmonic minor and aeolian during over which kinds of chords in a solo. Even though it is only a one note difference between the 2 scales such a subtle difference matters when playing over a chord progression. Even Yngwie does it a lot. But like you I wouldn't want to always sound like Bach. I like some of the mediterranean sounding stuff. For example Yngwie's instrumental 'Treasure From The East' bonus track of of his War To End All Wars album comes to mind.

 

[shredhead7]

Great work on the layouts! The scales also are translated very easily into 3 notes per string runs, which are easier (to me, as it is how I learned the modes). I am not sure if Yngwie plays them that way or not, as the transcriptions I've seen, are not the same fingerings as he is using, even on his own instructional video.

Translated you can play A harmonic minor
E - 17 16 13
B - 17 15 13
G - 16 14 13
D - 15 14 12
A - 15 14 12

I've been on a huge Yngwie kick again lately, I feel like it's 1987 all over again.

 

[War Admiral]

He uses pattern 1 all the time but he will also add a chromatic note D (b7th) in this case in E Harmonic Minor..this is a huge staple in his playing. Especially in fast descending runs and landing on the Maj 7th (D#)

 

[CannedBrisket]

Just throwin' this out there; I use harmonic minor all the time, for blackened death metal. It really depends on HOW you use it.

 

[70strathead]

I've always found this scale effective for resolving on top of a 7th chord and over diminshed as Ed explained wonderfully. I like the Van Halen example and agree with that context and use. But what a lot of people don't realize is that Bach and Vivaldi ( Especially Bach) applied Melodic Minor scales that may come across as sounding like Harmionic Minor or natural minor. J.S. Bach's Chromatic fantasy in D Minor is a good example as well as Vivaldi's Four Seasons ( Summer Presto Movement).

 

[degenaro]

I've always found this scale effective for resolving on top of a 7th chord and over diminshed as Ed explained wonderfully. I like the Van Halen example and agree with that context and use. But what a lot of people don't realize is that Bach and Vivaldi ( Especially Bach) applied Melodic Minor scales that may come across as sounding like Harmionic Minor or natural minor. J.S. Bach's Chromatic fantasy in D Minor is a good example as well as Vivaldi's Four Seasons ( Summer Presto Movement).

Ant, take a look at my melodic minor over dominant 7 thread...I'm a huge fan of that scale and its applications...

 

[carl roa]

Great graphics for the Harmonic minor scale! Cool! I use Harmonic Minor where ever I use Aeolian. I consider them interchangeable. Certain chord progressions will favor the Harmonic minor scale ... typically when you have a dominant 7th chord resolving to minor.

 

[Guitarboy55]

Yngwie uses the chromatic D note as you call it in E harmonic minor to maintain a 3 note per string order. This is more critical in his ascending harmonic minor runs.

 

[crankyrayhanky]

Cool
Marked for later

 

[Bam Bam]

This is a short scale lesson from my Yngwie Malmsteen 100% fan tribute page: http://home.comcast.net/~yngwie100/

Neoclassical guitar playing has a very distinctive sound. This is due in large part from use of the Harmonic Minor scale, which is also extensively used in classical music. It was truely the Heavy Metal scale of the baroque era! No wonder that it is the basis for much of Yngwie's musical style, guitar riffs and solos. Here are a few instructional illustrations that I made (over Yngwie Malmsteen's signature Fender Stratocaster) showing suggested Harmonic Minor guitar scale fingering patterns that Yngwie might use in the keys of E and A. Practice these by trying to combine both scale patterns 1 and 2 of each key up and down the fretboard, including other places not shown here where they also repeat 12 frets apart. Try to start on the key's root note (highlighted yellow) by sliding to and from the 1st and 7th note in the scale interval. You will find the 3 notes per string fingering patterns are very symmetrical and thus become easy to remember:

Hi Steve, I would love to see the charts you posted here but they don't show and if I hit the tribute page it no longer exists. Do you happen to have a copy of these so I can see? Thanks much appreciated.

 

[cragginshred77]

I feel like guys such as Jon Levin of Dokken and Paul Gilbert use aspects of the harmonic minor mixed with Mixolydian or whatever other modes or pentatonics to not get as old as always being in harmonic minor mode can be.

 

[Gainiac]

Crap…. I can’t get the redirect to comcast.net, Nor SEE the jpegs from the original post! Now, I am sad….

 

[Gainiac]

Waaait…. Are you guys playin with me…..?

 

[Exo-metal]

This is a short scale lesson from my Yngwie Malmsteen 100% fan tribute page: http://home.comcast.net/~yngwie100/

Neoclassical guitar playing has a very distinctive sound. This is due in large part from use of the Harmonic Minor scale, which is also extensively used in classical music. It was truely the Heavy Metal scale of the baroque era! No wonder that it is the basis for much of Yngwie's musical style, guitar riffs and solos. Here are a few instructional illustrations that I made (over Yngwie Malmsteen's signature Fender Stratocaster) showing suggested Harmonic Minor guitar scale fingering patterns that Yngwie might use in the keys of E and A. Practice these by trying to combine both scale patterns 1 and 2 of each key up and down the fretboard, including other places not shown here where they also repeat 12 frets apart. Try to start on the key's root note (highlighted yellow) by sliding to and from the 1st and 7th note in the scale interval. You will find the 3 notes per string fingering patterns are very symmetrical and thus become easy to remember:

This link down?

 

[splitendz]

Yup....nothing there