Neoclassical guitar scales are really, really fun.

By playing neoclassical scales on guitar, we can create some incredibly rich and interesting sounds in our playin

The Harmonic Minor Scale

The original king of neoclassical guitar scale, the harmonic minor scale has an unmistakable sound. The harmonic minor scale has the intervals:

1 2 b3 4 5 b6 7

and if we were playing C harmonic minor, we would get the following notes:

C D Eb F G Ab B

Harmonic Minor Scale Tab

Harmonic Minor Scale Fretboard Diagram

How to Use The Harmonic Minor Scale

You can play a harmonic minor scale over any minor chord with the same root note. For example, if you are playing over E minor, try an E harmonic minor scale
It’s a very cool scale and one that you will have a lot of fun with!

The Phrygian Dominant Scale

If you thought the harmonic minor had a cool sound, just wait until you hear this.
Named due to its similarity with the phrygian mode, the phrygian dominant can be thought of as a phrygian scale with a major third, creating the 1 M3 P5 m7 inte
The scale has the intervals:

1 b2 3 4 5 b6 b7

and if we were playing C phrygian dominant, we would get a neoclassical scale with the following notes:

C Db E F G Ab Bb

Phrygian Dominant Scale Tab

How to Use The Phrygian Dominant Scale

To use this neoclassical guitar scale to maximum effect, play it over a major chord, ideally the V chord in a key.
So, if you were playing in the key of A minor, with the chords progression:

Am C Am E

Where the E chord is a V chord, we could play E phrygian dominant over the top.
The phrygian dominant scale is a neoclassical sounding guitar scale that works great over V chords and also any secondary dominant chords.

The Melodic Minor Scale

This scale is heard less often in metal and more often in jazz and classical, but it is still a great scale and we can get some awesome neoclassical sounds from i
There are two ways to approach playing the melodic minor scale, the traditional classical way, and the jazz way. We will take a look at both:

Classical Way of Playing the Melodic Minor Scale

In the strict classical way of playing the scale, we play the melodic scale differently when ascending and descending.
When ascending, we use the following intervals:

1 2 b3 4 5 6 7

And when descending, we use the natural minor scale:

1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7

If we were to ascending and descend through a C melodic minor scale, using it in the classic sense, we would get:

C D Eb F G A B C Bb Ab G F Eb D C

‘Classical’ Melodic Minor Scale Tab

and interesting sounds in our playing an improvising. Lets take a look at some of these neoclassical scales and how we can use them in our guitar playing:
r guitar playing: