Oriental Guitar Scale Improv

Diminished Scale Licks for Electric Guitar

by Jason Earls, author of How to Become a Guitar Player from Hell
http://becomeguitaristfromhell.blogspot.com/

The diminished scale is an incredible sounding musical pattern. In my opinion it can sound either mystical, evil, or enchanting, depending upon the context in which it is played. Due to its unusual intervals and constantly shifting fingering positions when played on the guitar, it can also function as a challenging finger exercise. Here is the diminished dominant scale in the key of A:

---------------------------------5-6-8-9--
---------------------------5-7-8----------
---------------------5-6-8----------------
---------------5-7-8----------------------
---------6-7-9----------------------------
-5-6-8-9----------------------------------

It’s easy to see the scale follows a ‘half step/full step’ progression as it ascends in pitch. Arab musicians are thought to have been the first people to “invent” the diminished scale, as written records indicate their use of it in the early 7th century. The Arabs used the phrase “Zer ef Kend,” to name the scale, which meant “string of pearls,” since the alternating wide and short intervals reminded them of larger and smaller pearls strung together.

The composer and piano virtuoso Franz List is thought to have been the first Western musician ever to use the diminished scale in his compositions. His piece, “Feux Follets” features it in a regularly recurring melody throughout the piece.

Even though the scale above is the full version of the diminished dominant, I usually prefer playing only partial intervals of the scale, like so:
~
----------------------8-11-14--
-------------------10----------
--------------8-11-------------
---------7-10------------------
-----6-9-----------------------
-5-8---------------------------

Of course we can also generate finger-tapping licks using the diminished scale. For the following lick, we will use the full diminished dominant scale, not just partials.

T T T T
-------------------------------------
-------------------------------------
-------------------------------------
-------------------------------------
------------------10-6-7-9-10-6-7-9--
-9-5-6-8-9-5-6-8---------------------

T T T T
-------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------
----------------------12-8-9-11-12-8-9-11--
-11-7-8-10-11-7-8-10-----------------------
-------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------

T T T T
--------------------------15-11-12-14-15-11-12-14-15-
-14-10-11-13-14-10-11-13-----------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------

All notes above are either hammered-on, finger-tapped, or pulled-off to. You can repeat the phrases on each string for a longer duration of time before changing to the next string, if desired. The tapping above can be a little tricky due to the fact that when hammering-on with the pinky finger, you may have a tendency to hit the index finger you are using to tap with, since it will be in close proximity to your pinky. To solve this problem, you may need to tap a little closer to the actual fret while keeping your pinky finger pulled back a tad more than normal, so that your fingers will be sufficiently separated – if they hit against each other, it will throw off the flow and timing of the lick or simply slow you down.

Descending quadruplets also sound incredible when played in the diminished scale, as our last scary lick adequately demonstrates:

-14-11-8----11-8--------8---------------------
---------10------10-------10------10----------
--------------------11-------11-8----11-8-----
------------------------------------------10--
----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------
--------------------------------------
-11-8------8--------------------------
------10-7---10-7----10-7-----7-------
------------------9-------9-6---9-6---
------------------------------------8-
~
--------------
--------------
--------------
--------------
-9-6----------
-----8-5-6----

As you can see from the examples above, the diminished scale can be a potent weapon against the drudgery of similar sounding licks. Use it like a hand grenade to explode the musically sensitive neurons in the brains of the members of your audience.

-end-

http://becomeguitaristfromhell.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/zevi35711

Bio: Jason Earls is the author of How to Become a Guitar Player from Hell, Cocoon of Terror, Red Zen, Heartless Bast*rd In Ecstasy, If(Sid_Vicious == TRUE && Alan_Turing == TRUE) {ERROR_Cyberpunk(); } and 0.136101521283655... all available at Amazon.com and other online book stores. His fiction and mathematical work have been published in Red Scream, Yankee Pot Roast, M-Brane SF, Scientia Magna, three of Clifford Pickover’s books, Neometropolis, Mathworld, AlienSkin, Recreational and Educational Computing, Escaping Elsewhere, Thirteen, Dogmatika, Prime Curios, Thirteen, the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences, OG’s Speculative Fiction, Nocturnal Ooze, Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens, and other publications. He currently resides in Oklahoma with his wife, Christine.

The Mohammedan Scale

by Jason Earls, author of How to Become a Guitar Player from Hell & Red Zen

This will be a quick and easy article. We will only be dealing with only one scale, the Mohammedan Scale (which is almost a finger exercise in itself) along with a couple of additional finger exercises built from it.

As you can probably guess from the title, the Mohammedan Scale is used extensively in traditional Middle Eastern songs (of which I can’t say I’m familiar with even one), but I do love Eastern sounding scales, since most of them possess a particularly dark and somewhat eerie quality. Also they can be quite challenging to play since many of them have wide intervals interspersed with half steps. Here is the Mohammedan Scale in the key of A:

-----------------------------5-7-8-10--
-----------------------5-6-9-----------
-------------------5-7-----------------
-------------6-7-9---------------------
-------5-7-8---------------------------
-5-7-8---------------------------------

Listen to the overall dark tone of the scale. To me it seems very "emotional" sounding. Also notice the last four notes that occur on the high E string. If we assign one finger per note on that string, we can produce a nice, challenging finger exercise from that portion along. What I mean is, we can play the last four notes on the high E string using a 1-2-3-4 fingering combination (I’ll put the info below the tablature); and then to make the exercise cyclic we’ll use notes on the B string from the scale as well.

Try this making sure to pick every note:

(to see this article with tablature formatted correctly, go here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/8652244/The-Mohammedan-Scale )

-5-7-8-10-8-7-5-7-------------------
------------------5-6-9-10-9-6-5-6--
--------------------------------------
--------------------------------------
--------------------------------------
--------------------------------------
--------------------------------------
1 2 3 4 3 2 1 2 1 2 4 4 4 2 1 2

The fingering here can be pretty tricky. Notice the information listed below the TAB. Again, you should use all four fingers for the notes on the high E string; and then for those on the B use all fingers EXCEPT your ring finger. That is, the three 4s in a row mean you should fret with your pinky and then slide up (with your pinky) to get the note on the 10th fret, then slide back down again and continue.

The exercise above uses notes directly from the Mohammedan scale, but now let’s generate another exercise using the same four note high E pattern on the B as well, being concerned only with working our fingers:

--5-7-8-10-8-7-5-7--------------------
--------------------5-7-8-10-8-7-5-7--
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------

Now that’s a real finger stretcher, isn’t it? Note that if the stretch is a little too wide for your hands, you can move it up the neck to frets that are not spaced so far apart.
The exercises above should help build your picking speed, increase finger coordination, finger strength and flexibility while improving your accuracy. Just make sure that your hands are sufficiently warmed up before attempting any of the exercises. And remember to use a metronome as well.

-end-

Jason Earls is author of the books How to Become a Guitar Player from Hell, Cocoon of Terror (Afterbirth Books), Red Zen, Heartless Bast*rd In Ecstasy, If(Sid_Vicious == TRUE && Alan_Turing == TRUE) {ERROR_Cyberpunk(); } and 0.136101521283655... all available at Amazon.com and other online book stores. His fiction and mathematical work have been published in Red Scream, Yankee Pot Roast, Scientia Magna, three of Clifford Pickover’s books, Mathworld, Thirteen, Chiaroscuro, Dogmatika, Neometropolis, Prime Curios, the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences, OG’s Speculative Fiction, AlienSkin, Escaping Elsewhere, Recreational and Educational Computing, Theatre of Decay, Nocturnal Ooze, Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens, and other publications. He currently resides in Oklahoma with his wife, Christine.