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hey, welcome to 12tone! scales are a musician's best friend.
learning to use and appreciate new scales is one of the best ways to develop your musical
vocabulary, so today I thought I'd look at one of the most important families of scales
in more advanced styles of music, the modes of harmonic and melodic minor.
now, a lot has already been written about these: just google that phrase and you'll
see pages and pages of guitar magazines, music blogs, and even a very old 12tone video, but
most of them, myself included, have the same basic problem: at heart, they're just lists.
they tell you the notes in the scale, possibly with some guitar fingerings, and maybe if
you're lucky they'll even mention which chord it sounds best over, but a scale is more than
a set of notes.
a scale has a sound, a character, an identity, so I think it's worth taking a look at what
these scales are actually like.
(tick, tick, tick, tick, tock)
let's start with the parent scales. as you might imagine, harmonic minor and melodic
minor are both variants on, y'know, minor.
more specifically, they were invented to solve a problem with the natural minor scale.
y'see, in major (bang) if we play the 7th note, it has a really strong pull back up
to the root.
it leads you back, so we call it the leading tone.
it works because it's super close to the root: it's only a half-step below, which is the
smallest interval in standard tuning.
the leading tone is a crucial part of traditional harmonic practices, but the minor scale (bang)
doesn't have one.
here, the 7th is a whole step away, so we don't get that pull.
it's a simple fix, though: we just take that 7th and raise it back up.
(bang) this fixes our harmonic issue, so we call it harmonic minor.
however, it's not without its own flaws: the minor 7th was already a whole step above the
minor 6th, so raising it up means that even though these two notes are consecutive, they're
still a minor 3rd apart.
or, technically it's an augmented 2nd, but I don't care.
anyway, while later musicians often found this forced leap to be an upside of the scale,
adding a little extra pepper to their melodies, it was just too much for old-timey composers,
so instead they doubled down on the whole raising-notes thing and lifted up the 6th
too, making melodic minor.
(bang)
so, ok, that's our parent scales, let's talk modes.
a mode is when you take a scale and play all the same notes, but treat a different one
as the root. you might think that'd make them sound really similar, but the root is such
a large part of a scale's identity that changing it can make it almost completely different.
like, as an example, minor (bang) is a mode of major.
(bang) in fact, y'know what?
let's go over the modes of the major scale first.
this may be review for some of you, but I think it'll help.
these are often listed in the order they appear in the scale, starting with the first note
as root, then the second, and so on, but I'm gonna do things a little differently.
I care more about what they actually sound like, so I'm gonna arrange them by brightness,
which for these purposes is just how sharp the average note is.
so, like, if we take the fourth mode, lydian (bang) we see it's a lot like major, but we've
raised the 4th up a half-step.
despite being a tritone above the root, moving the 4th away from the 3rd actually makes the
scale sound more stable.
from there, we can lower that fourth to get major, the 1st mode (bang) which when we're
talking about modes is sometimes called Ionian instead.
next, we can lower the 7th to get the 5th mode, mixolydian.
(bang) this has a wistful sound to me: it's exactly like major, except without the leading
tone, so it's bright but directionless.
it's also what's called a dominant scale, which means it's got the necessary notes to
build a dominant 7th chord off the root. we'll get to why that matters later.
anyway, from there we can lower the 3rd to get the 2nd mode, dorian: (bang) and, to my
ears at least, this actually sounds happier than mixolydian.
that's because lowering the 3rd puts us in the realm of minor scales, so instead of hearing
this as mixolydian but flatter, it sounds like minor but with a raised 6th, giving us
a friendlier sort of minor scale that gets used a lot in folk music.
from there we can flat the 6th to get minor, the 6th mode: (bang) which is also sometimes
called Aeolian, and then flat the 2 to get the 3rd mode, phrygian.
(bang) this is like the opposite of Dorian: it's minor but even flatter, so you get this
dark, almost evil sound.
it shows up a lot in metal.
and finally, we can get the 7th mode, locrian, by taking phrygian and flatting the 5th. (bang)
this doesn't get used much, because without a perfect 5th, it's incredibly hard to stabilize
on the I chord.
alright, with that out of the way, let's turn our attention back to harmonic and melodic
minor.
what do their modes look like?
well, since minor is a mode of major, we should expect that our modified minor scales will
produce modes that look a lot like the ones we just saw, but with some slight alterations.
is that what we get?
well, let's dive in.
technically we should start with the first mode, but that's just harmonic and melodic
minor again, so let's skip to the second one.
the second mode of minor is locrian, so we should expect these to look similar, and harmonic
minor obliges: (bang) with a scale called Locrian natural 6, because it's just like
locrian but instead of a flat 6, it has… y'know what, you get it.
in terms of sound, this is pretty much the same as locrian, and you can use it in basically
the same circumstances.
the diminished I chord is such an important part of that scale that moving around the
other notes doesn't really change much, at least not in this case.
the leap from b5 to the 6 is interesting, but by and large this is just locrian with
a fancy hat.
melodic minor, on the other hand, gets a bit weirder.
its second mode raises the 5th back up (bang) giving us a normal minor scale with a phrygian
2nd and a dorian 6th. you can call this Dorian b2, Phrygian natural 6, or, if you're feeling
rebellious, Phyrgian Dorian. this is neat 'cause it gives you access to different emotional
colors depending on where in the scale you are: you can lean on that gnarly b2, maybe
over phrygian's signature bVII minor chord, or you can get that bright, folksy major 6th
with Dorian's IV major.
you can even string them together: (bang) for a really unique if slightly unusual progression.
but let's move on to the third modes.
the third mode of minor is major, so these should sound basically major, right?
well… (bang) that's harmonic minor's, which is often called major augmented, and you may
have noticed the complete lack of a perfect 5th, which, yeah, that's not ideal.
much like locrian couldn't stabilize on a diminished I chord, here our I chord is augmented,
so again it's pretty hard to actually, like, do anything with this scale.
you can use it as a chord scale, which is where you play it temporarily over one chord
in a progression, but that only works if you find yourself soloing over a lot of augmented
chords. and it gets worse: melodic minor looked at this scale that already can't stabilize
on its I chord and thought hey, you know what this needs? a note a tritone above the root.
(bang) that's lydian augmented, and I don't wanna talk about it.
or, ok, I should probably walk that back a bit.
I'm not saying these scales are bad.
it's just they have a really particular sound: lydian augmented especially has this magic,
almost ethereal quality to it.
like with normal lydian, raising the 4th actually kinda helps.
they're not well-suited for harmony, at least not unless you're really into dissonance,
which hey, some composers are, but as melodic scales they can sound beautiful if you treat
them delicately.
they're some of the most difficult of these modes to work with, but difficult doesn't
mean bad.
it just means difficult.
this brings us to the fourth modes. in minor this would be dorian, so we're expecting to
see folksy, upbeat minor scales. is that what we get?
well, yes, at least from harmonic minor.
(bang) this scale is what would happen if lydian and dorian had a baby: we've got the
classic minor 3rd-major 6th combo from dorian, but the #4 from lydian, giving us a scale
that could be called Dorian #4 or Lydian minor.
your call.
anyway, this is an interesting twist on Dorian: the classic dorian sound is the move from
I minor to IV major, which we no longer have, but in its place we can go I minor, II major
instead.
this replaces that powerful perfect 5th root motion with a step, so it feels a bit less
dramatic and more comfortable, but in a slightly unnerving way, 'cause the #4 is still a tritone
above the root. it's a really cool scale.
melodic minor does things a bit differently, though: (bang) here, we've raised the 3rd,
turning us into a major scale, or more precisely a dominant scale because, again, the combination
of major 3rd and minor 7th means we can build a dominant 7th chord off the root. this is
important because dominant chords are like the engines of traditional harmony: they're
highly directional, setting up powerful resolutions, so they're a great time to introduce some
extra tension.
the basic dominant scale is, of course, mixolydian, but in many ways our new scale, lydian dominant,
is better: in normal dominant chords, the 3rd is the leading tone that drives the resolution,
so if you're trying to build tension the last thing you want to do is play the perfect 4th.
that's the note you're trying to resolve to, and playing it early just gives up the game,
so if you're using mixolydian you just have to avoid that note.
on the other hand, the #4 from lydian dominant is fair game, sitting a half-step above the
root and leaving you room to resolve.
and if that's not enough dominant scales, we've got more.
the fifth mode of minor is phrygian, but that's not super relevant here: in both cases, one
of the changes we make is raising the 3rd to be major, giving us two new dominant scales
that look more like mixolydian than anything else.
harmonic minor's is this (bang) called Phrygian Dominant, and melodic minor's is this (bang)
called Aeolian Dominant.
like mixolydian, these both have that unfortunate perfect 4th, but they still give us some fun
new toys to play with: the b2 in phrygian dominant and the b6 in both of them are much
less stable than their major counterparts, giving these scales a darker, harsher sound.
this makes them perfect for setting up a resolution to a minor chord, because those are a bit
darker to being with, so you need more bite in order to stick the landing.
that's how to use these as chord scales, but of course you can also build your whole song
on them, just like any other scale.
phrygian dominant is probably the most popular one for this use, because coming from harmonic
minor, it holds onto that distinctive forced leap. in fact, it drags that leap all the
way down to the very beginning of the scale, or at least right next to it, which makes
it sound way more prominent.
you've probably heard it before in songs like The Offspring's Come Out And Play (bang) where
it lends its distinctive character to what would otherwise just be a simple walk up and
down the scale.
you can also get a really cool shuttle going between I major and bII major.
this is another one of my favorites from this collection.
Aeolian dominant is a lot more like normal mixolydian, but a little extra.
mixolydian harmony takes your typical major progression and makes it kinda melancholy
with a minor V chord, and the main difference here is that we also have a minor IV. this
creates an interesting dynamic where it's major on the bottom but totally minor on top.
it's less common than phrygian dominant 'cause who doesn't love that spicy b2, but it's still
a great sound.
we've gotta move on, though.
the 6th mode of minor is lydian, and harmonic minor stays pretty close to that: (bang) with
Lydian #2, and I'm not really sure what to make of this scale.
in a sense, it's similar to phrygian dominant, in that putting the forced leap so early makes
it the center of attention.
we can even do the same riff (bang) but here it sounds a bit brighter because we don't
have that b2 dragging us down.
on the other hand, the b2 did a great job setting up the root at the end, so this version
feels a bit less grounded.
it's a trade-off.
harmonically, we get access to VII major, which is not a chord you see very often, so
that's fun.
beyond that, though, it's not all that different from Lydian. this isn't a scale I've done
all that much with, and I haven't seen it used very often either, but I think it has
a lot of potential, so if you're looking to break new musical ground, this might be the
scale to do it with.
when we turn to melodic minor, though, things get tricky.
again.
remember, the 6 is the note that's different between harmonic and melodic minor, so while
up to now the two scales have been pretty similar, that's not really the case here.
I mean, technically it's still only one note different between them, but in this case that
note is the root, so… yeah.
kind of a big deal.
anyway, here's what that mode looks like: (bang) and if you're thinking "hey that sounds
like locrian!" then yeah, you're right.
it's basically locrian again, except it's got a natural second, so we call it Locrian
natural 2. this is sorta similar to lydian dominant: locrian is often used as a chord
scale over diminished chords, which tend to want to resolve up a half-step.
this makes the root of the scale behave like a leading tone, so much like you don't want
to play the 4th over a dominant 7th, when you're playing in locrian you usually avoid
the b2. replacing it with a natural 2 opens up new options without giving away the resolution.
beyond that, though, this is very similar to locrian, and can be used in most of the
same scenarios.
and speaking of locrian, let's move on to the 7th modes.
now, in minor the 7th mode is mixolydian, but since both harmonic and melodic minor
raise their 7ths, the scales we'd actually expect to see are more like the 7th mode of
the major scale, which is locrian again.
that's right, these scales get two locrians.
no wonder they're so advanced.
but these are no ordinary locrians.
these are special locrians, and to see why, we're gonna switch things up and start with
melodic minor's instead.
(bang)
this is called Altered, and it may not seem like it but despite having a minor 3rd, it's
actually a dominant scale.
how? well, if we look at it, it's basically just locrian with a flat 4. you'd think that'd
make it sound even darker, but it turns out that if you take a perfect 4th and lower it
a half-step, what you wind up with is a major 3rd. combine that with locrian's b7 and boom,
you've got the shell of a dominant chord. we don't have a perfect 5th to complete it,
but honestly the perfect 5th doesn't really do much anyway, at least not in a dominant
7th, so you can still get the effect without it.
altered is a really popular dominant scale because you're basically just taking your
dominant shell voicing and then adding in all the gnarliest extra notes: you've got
your b2, your #2, your #4, and your b6, all of which are great ways to make your dominant
7th chord feel extra jagged.
plus, there's no perfect 4th, so just like with phrygian dominant you can't accidentally
spoil the resolution.
much like locrian, though, altered doesn't really make a good base scale: while the perfect
5th doesn't do much on a dominant, it's incredibly important for stabilizing your I chord.
depending on which notes you choose the I chord could be diminished or augmented, which
is fun, but without a 5th neither one is gonna feel at rest.
and finally, we come to harmonic minor: (bang) where seventh mode is like altered, but the
7th is flatted again, turning it into a diminished 7th or major 6th. this means we don't have
a dominant scale anymore, but we do have something even better: a diminished scale.
this means we can build a fully diminished 7th off the root, and finding good chord scales
for the fully diminished 7th is not easy.
this scale is sort of like locrian's older, more complicated sibling: locrian gets used
a lot as a chord scale for half-diminished 7s, and this scale, called Altered Diminished
or just Ultralocrian, can serve the same role over the rarer but, in my opinion, cooler
fully diminished chords. and it's especially interesting in that role because it's not
symmetrical: diminished 7th chords are just a stack of minor 3rds, so the standard diminished
scale is just an alternating pattern of half-steps and whole steps, (bang) emphasizing that ambiguity
and making it hard to nail down your position.
Ultralocrian, on the other hand, makes it very clear where the root is: it's the one
at the top of the big jump. and yes, since diminished 7ths are symmetrical, the fact
that you can build one off the root here means you can also build them off the roots of three
other modes.
Locrian natural 6, Dorian #4, and Lydian #2 are all diminished scales too, they just hide
it better.
anyway, hopefully that all helped you understand these scales a bit better.
they're an essential part of any advanced musical vocabulary, so I think it's worth
taking the time to think about what they really are.
ultimately, though, the best way to learn a language is to speak it, so if you really
want to familiarize yourself with these or any other scales, there's no better way than
just playing them.
if anything stood out to you, take it for a spin, see what you find.
especially Lydian #2.
that one's got some real potential.
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