00:13i want to talk about the harmonic minor
00:16the harmonic minor scale is usually used
00:20in a lot of metal songs
00:21a lot of guitar players you got uli john
00:24roth you've got ingredient
00:27and john petrucci actually has kind of
00:28his own way of approaching this scale
00:30too which is really great
00:31but pretty much every guitar player has
00:35harmonic minor style that they like to
00:38um some different some different ways of
00:41approaching the scale i think that that
00:42kind of gives it their own uniqueness
00:44to make this video i i went on youtube
00:46and i looked up a bunch of different
00:47videos of people trying to explain the
00:49harmonic minor scale
00:50and its utilizations and the different
00:52chords that come into play with when
00:55when using that mode i find that it gets
00:57a little bit confusing
00:59for people who are just trying to get
01:02what the harmonic minor scale is maybe
01:04they heard it in a song and they want to
01:06you know throw it into their playing i
01:09complicating it right away kind of turns
01:12people off to the idea when
01:14giving them something more simple to
01:15work on and less maybe just a little bit
01:18theory right away kind of kind of
01:21the possibility right away then going
01:23into the theory after might be a little
01:26of of trying to get people to understand
01:28what's going on the harmonic minor scale
01:30really isn't that complicated when you
01:34all it is is it's a minor scale with a
01:38a lot of the times we hear people talk
01:41uh they base it on the major scale so
01:42they will go let's take this for example
01:44we got an a major scale
01:50the a major scale is an
01:56e f sharp g sharp and then back to a
02:00then what they will do is they will say
02:02well it's an a major scale
02:04however we have to flatten the third
02:08and then keep the seven normal so
02:15and technically yes this is right it's
02:18but i feel that it's a little confusing
02:20because you have to like
02:21flatten the third flatten the six keep
02:23the seven the same it's a lot of
02:25it's a lot of thought process instead
02:27let's take a look at it as
02:37so instead of flattening the third
02:38flattening the six and then keeping the
02:40all we're going to do is play minor
02:45but then just raise that one note
02:50the important thing is that raised seven
02:54what that does is it creates a lot of
02:57is tension and resolution we build
03:01then we resolve the tension you can keep
03:04basic minimal idea i think that you're
03:07going to be really successful with this
03:10if we're looking at it as a minor scale
03:13with just a raised seven what we can do
03:16is we can take this mode
03:18and let's just play a minor like normal
03:21the a minor would be uh c major relative
03:24major right so we've got a c
03:31an e minor an f major
03:44and then a b with a a b minor flat five
03:48or however look at it
03:54that's your basic chord progression in c
03:56major however we're not in c major
03:58right we're in a minor so a now becomes
04:11now i'm gonna stop on this v chord the e
04:14minor when we did the harmonic minor
04:18we remember that we had a b c d e
04:26when i play an e minor though which is
04:28what we call the five
04:29chord the five chord is the most uh
04:33dominant chord right so it wants to pull
04:39when we play it as an e minor which is
04:42diatonically diatonically meaning we're
04:45it's an e minor because it has a g
04:52now if you tried to play harmonic minor
04:55that g sharp would really crash with the
04:58natural because they're so close to each
05:00other but what we can do is on that five
05:02chord when it raises into a dominant
05:05seven chord or an e major
05:10that is when we're going to execute the
05:12harmonic minor scale
05:14okay so we finish it out f major g major
05:18and then back to a minor
05:22so what do i mean by when that chord is
05:25present we're going to execute the a
05:27or a harmonic minor scale we're playing
05:31a minor c g whatever the backing track
05:42to introduce a harmonic minor we're
05:46a minor all the normal a minor
05:48pentatonic or regular minor scales that
05:50you already know how to play
05:52if i were to play something like this
06:08all of that was a minor pentatonic with
06:11a little bit of the natural minor scale
06:14but when i hit this e chord which is the
06:18chord remember and it goes to an e major
06:26that's my trigger to hit
06:30that g sharp and make it a harmonic
06:54look at it as like windows okay
06:57you have four windows to a chord
06:59progression let's say each window
07:00represents a chord so you've got
07:10and then e7 that chord progression
07:28each one of those windows opens up for
07:31let's say four beats so the a minor
07:33counts for four so we hit a minor
07:38that window is now open to play anything
07:41a minor that you want
07:52then that window closes the next chord
07:55was c major for four beats
08:01we can play a minor or we can play a c
08:13then for four beats we play d minor
08:20now you can still continue playing a
08:21minor like you have been or you can play
08:24c major or you can play d dorian
08:36get to e7 that window is now open for us
08:40harmonic minor we couldn't play harmonic
08:43a c or d minor because it wouldn't sound
08:46right because you've got
08:47g sharp and most of those chords a g
08:49sharp is going to sound terrible
08:56now if all of these last for four beats
08:58you have four beats to play anything
09:11there's a lot that we can do with a
09:15and in that instance the e7 happened
09:18right at the end of the chord
09:19progression a c d minor and e7
09:22but what if the chord happens on the
09:43not a great chord progression but it's
09:45possible to do i suppose
09:47then looking at it like those windows
09:51once a minor hits we're going to play a
09:56then the e7 comes in we're going to hit
10:07then we finish out the rest of it in a
10:08minor or you can pick modes based on the
10:10chords that popped up
10:11there's still a whole lot more to
10:13harmonic minor that we can dive into
10:16but for this video i wanted to keep it
10:18more for people that that want to start
10:20implementing a little bit of a harmonic
10:22minor or any harmonic minor into their
10:25keep in mind don't change anything about
10:30if you're going to play an a minor play
10:33and just do all the same licks and ideas
10:36phrases that you already know how to do
10:39but once that window opens up for
10:42the e7 to come in whether it's on the
10:44first chord second chord third chord
10:46fourth chord or whatever that's your
10:50to throw in that one g sharp note
10:54inside of what you've already been
11:04you have to be able to know exactly when
11:06that chord's coming and most of the time
11:08backtracks will give you that chord
11:10so you know okay in four beats i need to
11:13get to a g sharp somehow
11:17something like that okay in another
11:19video i'm going to go over
11:21more about the harmonic minor but again
11:22this was just for you to get started go
11:24ahead and find some backing tracks in
11:27harmonic minor keys you can do a b it
11:30really doesn't matter as long as you can
11:32five chord is wait for it to turn into a
11:35dominant seven or a major
11:36and then implement that one note and
11:38you'll start kind of understanding
11:40the power of the harmonic minor scale
11:43and what it can do to
11:44raise that tension and then that tension
11:47can lead you to more of a uh resolution
11:50tag me on instagram and and show off
11:52your videos i'd like to
11:53you know take a look at whatever you
11:55guys come up with and maybe try to give
11:57some feedback on it as well also if you
12:00would like to learn more about chromatic
12:03pentatonic modes and arpeggios things
12:06like that with some exercises definitely
12:08check out my book guitar efficiency
12:10it's on amazon right now very useful for
12:13people that are looking to
12:14expand on their music theory knowledge
12:16as well as get some exercises
12:18and even in the back it's got a weekly
12:21definitely take a look at that link's
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12:25subscribe like the video check out my
12:28book and until next time
