Best scales for metal..

[Seamus616]

I am massive into blues... but prefer Metal is there any "exotic" scales you would advice for metal?? :uzi:

[davie_gravy]

harmonic minor, any mode esp. the 5th...phrygian dominant

[oRg]

Well, in metal you use the normal major/minor scales as well as Harmonic Minor, some Melodic Minor, and recently I've been hearing alot of the Diminished scale used. It you listen to the song "I, Monarch" from Hate Eternal's cd I, Monarch you can hear that the rhythm uses it alot.

[TruthDevoid]

Depends what kind of metal you wish to play. Death Metal seems to use mainly diminished. Thrash metal is more minor (harmonic, natural, melodic) scales. Power metal is more major/minor. Mix them up and create your own unique sound.

[DamageFan6984]

harmonic minor, any mode esp. the 5th...phrygian dominant

DITTO Harmonic Minor is the way to go.

[EZURATE]

DITTO Harmonic Minor is the way to go.

They're all good to know and utilize in your playing.

Check out Spanish Phrygian and Melodic Minor.

[YJM04]

some of the scales i play around with are:
harmonic minor,melodic minor, mixolydian mode, natural minor, hungarian minor/major,spanish phyrgian and normal phyrigan, major scales, diminished, major and minor penitonics,harmonic major,double harmonic major/minor,augumented,auxiliary diminished/augumented,diatonic,Hirajoshi,Neoploitan maj/min.
those are some pretty good scales to mess around with.
some becker fans may notice that he used the hirajoshi in one of his songs as well many of these scales

[John Holland]

Everyone tells me that I use the harmonic minor scale in my leads. I would'nt know however.

[oRg]

I use a combination of Harmonic Minor, Diminished, and Natural Minor the most. It's the minor third space between the notes that I like to use. You can use pretty much any scale it just depends on the context in which you use it.

[feetunderwarpath]

i use A minor a lot without even realizing it just feels natural and I play through feel mainly, but for solos i like to know my scales.

[The Angry Hobbit]

penatonic, harmonic minor, diminished, and modes.... just depends on the sound you are looking for.....

[johnmansley]

penatonic

I wouldn't advise using the pentatonic scale in metal unless people are looking for that almost primitive sound of early Black Sabbath. Hardly anybody since about 1980 has used the pentatonic in metal.

[walpurgis]

Which one out of diminished, harmonic and melodic minor, has the most "evil" sound? I didn't want to use that word, but I couldn't think of a better one, and I've forgotten about all the theory that I had learned

[blizzard_beast]

Out of those three, I'd say the diminished has the most "evil" sound.

[walpurgis]

Sweet, thanks.

[Zertonshfits]

Minor for thrash and power metal works good i find :)

[YJM04]

augumented and natural minor are best for a sad feeling theme.
natural minor is also good for tapping, for example sea of lies by symphony X
to give a feeling of hightend action, it just depends what mode u play in

[Rattlehead]

Minor for thrash and power metal works good i find :)
Thrash also makes extensive use of the Locrian mode. Just look at Rust in Peace.
natural minor is also good for tapping, for example sea of lies by symphony X
Which part are you talking about?

[The Angry Hobbit]

I wouldn't advise using the pentatonic scale in metal unless people are looking for that almost primitive sound of early Black Sabbath. Hardly anybody since about 1980 has used the pentatonic in metal.


thats what i thought until i heard Bloodlined Caligraphy :behead:

[JacksonGuitars07]

The augmented fifth scale is good for composing neo-classical style licks.

C - D - E - F - G - G# - A - B

The half-whole scale is pretty dark sounding, perfect for death metal riffs

C - C#- D#- E- F#- G- A- A#

The pentatonic actually CAN be used nowadays. Mainly used for those 80s Van Halen style shredfest solos. You just have to know how to use it properly so you don't sound contrived.

Hope those helped!

[{DEATHBLACKGRIND}]

I've been playing around with a fair bit of whole-tone stuff lately which sounds cool. Hear cool use of whole-tone in Necrophagist - Intestinal Incubation.
I mainly use scale knowledge for jazz and improvisation though, for metal riffs I usually just play around with what sounds cool/bent.