Harmonic minor scale on guitar

Its formula is R 2 b3 4 5 b6 7, the same in every key: learn it once and you can build the harmonic minor scale on any root. Players often use it for neoclassical metal and minor-key melodies.

A root on a black key goes by one name here: C# harmonic minor, never Db harmonic minor. To find each note on the neck on its own, see every note on the fretboard.

A Harmonic Minor is A Natural Minor with the b7 raised by a half step.

G# is the note that makes the difference; on the neck above it wears a ring.

Nobody learns the whole neck at once. The harmonic minor scale comes in seven boxes with three notes on each string: position 1 starts on your low string with the root, A at fret 5, and each next box starts on the next note of the scale.

Learn one box, then the next, and play across both: together they cover the neck. Where the neck has room, a box comes back twelve frets higher. These are three-notes-per-string shapes, not CAGED.

In A, these are the chords that live in the harmonic minor scale: a triad and a seventh chord on each note of the scale, so you know what to play under your solo.

Click a chord to see how to play it.

Same notes, same frets, another home note: know the harmonic minor scale on the neck and you already have these under your fingers.

• E Phrygian Dominant

Tune down and the harmonic minor scale stays the same scale, it just sits on other frets. In Drop D only your low string changes, so every shape on the other five strings stays put. Drop C and Drop B take every string down, so the whole scale shifts, and DADGAD lowers three strings. Here is where its root A sits on the low string in each.