Anyone know a good scale to play death metal in? I haven't memorizd my scales but I know how to find them once you give me the name. If you tell me a specific mode please telll exactly what notes to flat (I have not come close to memorizing my modes yet). Sorry if there is already a thread like this, I did a search and didn't find one.

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Death metal is largely atonal ( although not an entirely correct description ), as I see it.

Necrophagist and many others like the diminished bastard....

It's 1,2,b3,4,b5,b6,6,7




Diminished arpeggios/sweeps are the sickest!

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For solos and leads, death metal guitarists often do employ the diminished scale, as well as the harmonic minor. And if you ever run out of ideas, just start ripping minor triads across the neck

But as far as riffs, few bands assume any sort of scale.

actually most bands used diminished scales and whole tone scales for tremelo riffs too.

Wow i was just thinking about this the other day, i always wondered what scale was popular to solo/riff in dm. Thanks for the good thread and good info

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In DM many diffrent scales are used!

*Death metal is largely atonal ( although not an entirely correct description ), as I see it.*
this is not quite true.... behind every riff there is some kind of musical basis.... even if the artists are not aware of this..... you could basically write down any shit and you will be still able to relate it to music theory...

anyways.... often the Phrygian mode is used: 1/2 , 1 , 1 , 1 , 1/2 , 1
For example in C Major/A Minor, the Phrygian mode is on E. So the notes would be: E F G A B C D
If you play a solo in phrygian or base a riff on the phrygian mode, you always have to start on the root note E and in some cases end on the root note E.

Aeolian Mode is also often used in DM
1 , 1/2 , 1 , 1 , 1/2 , 1
in C Major /A Minor the root note of the Aeolian mode is A.
the notes : A B C D E F G

Locrian Mode, the mode I use the most when I compose a DM song.
1/2 , 1 , 1 , 1/2 , 1 , 1
The root note in C Major/A minor is B
notes: B C D E F G A

Also nice for Solos is the K Scale
1/2 , 2 , 1 , 1/2
So in C the notes would be: C C# F G G#

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Anti-music is still music...

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Minor scales are used quite often. Arch enemy i know play solo's generally in e or d minor.
Modes to use would be Dorian (jazz or rock minor), Aeolian (Relative and Natural minor) and Locrian (diminished) for a more darker death metal solo.

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hate eternal uses this scale a lot.
maybe not a scale but this pattern shows up al the time

123-567-91011

and then all over the fretboard ofcuz

--------------------012-------------
----------------123----------------
------------234--------------------
--------345-----------------------
----456---------------------------
567------------------------------

etc.

its rilli easy to harmonize aswell

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It figures that I would be incorrect, I don't really know any scales

I was tabbing "Only Ash Remains" by Necrophagist and noticed they use a G Minor scale a lot.

Harmonic majors and minors sound good with a lot of metal songs. As do the Aeolian, Ionian, and Phrygian modes.

thanks for the help. one quick question, what do you need to do to a scale to make it minor. Stupid question, I know I'll laugh at myself for not realizing it, I probably used to know but right now I have no fucking idea what's going on.

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if im right...

take a major scale, and if u change the 3rd note a half step it becomes a minor scale.

not sure though (this is what i think i remember from guitarlessons)

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feetunderwarpath best way to learn differences between major and minor scales is by doing the scale on one string:

A major

A|-0-2-4-5-7-9-11-12 So the rule for major is TTSTTTS

A Minor

A|-0-2-3-5-7-8-10-12 So the rule for minor is TSTTSTT

T = Tone (two frets)
s = semi tone (1 fret)

All you have to do is find a the root of the note that you want to play in the scale, whether you want it to be major or minor and then play it on the string. I just used an open A as it is an easy example to show what I mean. After learning it on one string you can then find out what the corresponding notes are in the scale for the rest of the strings.


A harmonic minor is the same as the minor scale but the 7th note in the scale is sharpened.

In A minor the notes are :A B C D E F G A(octave)

In A harmonic minor the are : A B C D E F G# A(octave)

I hope i haven't confused you more and that it helps in some way

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Whole tone. No, wait, come to think of it, most death metal guitarists didn't learn theory until a few years ago when the technical metal bands started it up. So they played dumbass shit that happened to sound really cool. With that in mind, death metal doesn't use a 1 scale, that's fucking dumb. Death metal uses every scale.

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Like powers said... you can use any scale to write death metal, it's just the way the music writer writes thats makes it sound a certain way.

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what powers said...just use a lot of chromatics (half steps) and that flatted fifth...(errr...diminished, its just not called diminished)

--d

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For Death Metal the whole scale sound I would combine. . . Natural Major and Natural Minor together a lot. . . 10 tones to play with(ex: A- B- C- C#- D- E- F- F#- G- G#-A). . . Incorporate Diminished. . . or stack Natural minor and Hungarian(same as Harmonic with an augmented 4th) or Harmonic minor(same as natural with an Augmented Seventh). . . This may seem stupid but it helps a bit. . . now lets see. . . chordally I'd use Inversion as much as possible but not constantly, and the root 5th seems to be very attractive in that style. . . hope this helps but like a lot of people have said you can make sure to use as much of Chromatic runs that you want. . . . then switch scales or resume the old one. . . . It's more or less a practice and find a sound and less or a theorhetical procedure but make sure you don't lose your own style and shit. Take it easy. . .

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^^

Good post! Loads of info, thanks for sharing....

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amen... i combine the natural minor with half whole diminished and the harmonic minor... it just adds little filler notes in between so you have more to work with... but then again, if you use it ALL, it can sound like crap... just figure out minor and diminished spacing in between the notes and use those...

yeah its pretty vague, but the best tip is, remeber that you can use all the notes, but also remember to make it sound good. play with it alot, dont just read, actually go out and experiment.

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wow thanks for the help!
I left for a week came back and found everything I was looking for.
now when I wrie death metal I use scales (one that I found myself, don't know if it's real or not) or use my ear. Now band will play a lot more death metal in our songs. I don't care if they can't keep up; they better learn.

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The D Phrygian Dominant scale is a good scale. I use fragments from the Phrygians a lot. A Harmonic Minor does my sun-passing too. I've also used B Minor before.
Phrygians make awesome arpeggios, too! Just using some of the intervals for chord roots and then using some minor and tritone voicings, you can create some very dark arpeggios. They suit the breed of ambient death metal I tend to write in.
I recently saw the video for the song 'I, Monarch' by Hate Eternal (someone get tabbing it!) on Scuzz. The riffs are peers with the Black Death in their pestilence. Listen to that song for a fix of ideal death metal scale and chord ideas. I think they use some kind of sharp octave chords. If any of you have the Metal Trax CD that came with Metal Hammer a bit ago, it's no. 5 on there. Truly a lesson on the black theory we pursue...

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what do you do to make a scale prhygian? Yet again I my theory needs a whole shit load of work.

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just take where you want the root of the phrygian to be, and play the phrygian mode.

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To add Phrygian flavours, I usually link notes by minor and single semitone intervals. Think the last three notes of the harmonic minor scale. Or sometimes, you could play two notes adjacent to eachother then skip two and play the next two and so on. Or even try skipping one and playing two.
Skipping one makes sound more depressing and almost hispanic, whatever you call hispanic scales. I think those few seconds of acoustic playing from Dying Fetus' 'Raped On The Altar' uses a similiar scheme.

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umm, any deminished scale would work for death metal. try something like this:----7-8-0-5-7-0-3-5-0-2-3-0-3-5-0-5-7-0-7-8-0-8-10-0-12------
on any string. its a fun little riff.

No I meant what is the phrygian mode, I haven't memorized them yet; what do you flat in the scale?

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1 - b2 - b3 - 4 - 5 - b6 - b7

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Phrygian- Play any major scale shape, but start (and end) on the third note.

eg
c maj-E phryg
Amaj-C#

What scales do Suffocation use? Their death metal is always interesting and it's probably down to their scales and keys...

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I would guess some diminished workings mixed in with atonal and symmetrical type patterns.

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Replace the minor 3rd with a major 3rd to sound doubly Egyptian.
Anyone know the Locrian? I always wanted to write death in it since I discovered how rarely it is used these days (apparently)...

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Locrain Mode:

1 - b2 - b3 - 4 - b5 - b6 - b7

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Almost every death metal guitarist uses the diminished scale to some extent.
Althought O'Brien admitted in the latest Cannibal Corpse dvd that some of his riffs/solos does not match any particular scale.

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Thank you. Praise. Locrian death...

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Nice scale is like that - E-F-G#-A-B-C-D#-E - with 2 enlarged intervals between F-G# and C-D#. Not sure that I can translate it's name correctly in English but I know it as "double harmonic" scale.

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That's just the Phrygian mode with a major 3rd instead of a minor 3rd and a major 7th in place of a minor 7th. Cool scale still. Little chromatic hit if you continue into another octave.

Standard tuner are you?

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Welcome. What a good first post.
Hmmm I haven't seen any Russians here before you ... (though I'm sure there must be some)

It's essentially a harmonic minor but the 4th note is sharp and you start the scale on the 5th note, so that the three chromatic notes aren't as obvious.

And then you can take it too far by doing this:
semitone, 3xsemitone, semitone, 3xsemitone, semitone, 3xsemitone
Like E-F-G#-A-C-Db-E. You would expect it to sound extra egyptian if you were to look at the fretboard pattern, but it doesn't really. Maybe I haven't played around with it enough .... it's a bit hard to write in that 'scale'.

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