It's been a wet Friday with hardly anywhere to go. The exciting indoor places would probably be full of people who would wanna get away from the rain so the best place to be is home...
Lots of coffee & many harmonic minor runs later, I still find my Fender Highway 1 Strat to be one of the best guitar I own. Depite its pariah tag, the H1 model is a fantastic instrument that would only appease the non-snob players who aren't critical of what an ideal guitar should be because this instrument per se is crafted with components which would get the job done, nothing excessive. Anyway, some productive time was spent with my H1 today, particularly the exploration of the harmonic minor scale. I dislike this scale because it sounds too Malmsteen-ish (no disrespect for Mr. Malmsteen, of course), a chock full of classical sounding notes & nothing happy-sounding unless one gets creative with some additional notes in the mix. Ironically, it's the omission of a few notes which made me play quite extensively, forgoing a routine visit to the latrine, to say the least. I discovered this omission manifested a very Japanese sounding lick. Through another phrasing, it then sounded like what a Javanese gamelan player would churn out. It's slightly past midnight now & I'm finally retiring for the day. No, I'm not interested in the World Cup in the mean time.
I'm also glad I have a humbucker in the bridge position- Duncan's Hot Rails. I somehow knew I would have something going fusing the H1's midrange-rich body with this rather boomy pickup (but there's much clarity on board, mind you). Someone who witnessed this pickup swap said I'm desecrating the Fender tone which should be an all single coil affair but I have my ST-72 & 50th Anniversary Strat to handle that hallowed tone.
5 comments:
hey sub, how do u know which progression u can use the harmonic minor in? other than trying to hear if it fits, i've only been getting success when using this scale on heavier and emo backing tracks. :(
i just go with the relative key, looking at the common notes played. it's those common notes which help you 'pivot' between scale types :-)
hmmm dun get u :( if u only get the melody and are given only the fact that it is in E min for example, how are u gonna find out if there are any common notes?? o.O
map out both scales on paper (draw the entire fingerboard), this way you can see the overlapping notes :-)
hmmm then there's only one note thats different between the minor and the harmonic minor...by pivot u mean playing only the different note tastefully??
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