{"id":127354,"date":"2022-08-04T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-04T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=127354"},"modified":"2023-05-31T20:00:33","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T03:00:33","slug":"12-ways-to-play-better-blues-guitar-lesson-6-harmonizing-a-scale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/12-ways-to-play-better-blues-guitar-lesson-6-harmonizing-a-scale\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Ways to Play Better Blues Guitar \u2014 Lesson 6: Harmonizing a Scale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Welcome to 12 Ways to Play Better Blues Guitar<\/a><\/strong>, a lesson series designed to give you a solid foundation in this essential style. I previously taught you how to add depth to your blues playing by working on chords up the neck. In a similar vein, this time I\u2019ll teach you how to create interesting harmonies derived from a scale\u2014specifically, the ascending form of A melodic minor (A B C D E F# G#).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Example 1 <\/strong>shows the notes in the A melodic minor scale, and Example 2<\/strong> harmonizes it. Note that the raised sixth scale degree (F#) makes for colorful-sounding Am6 (A C E F#) voicings. Example 3 <\/strong>demonstrates the same concept, but is based on the V chord (E7). You might recognize some of these shapes from the previous lesson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once you\u2019ve got the voicings under your fingers, try harmonizing the scale to go back and forth between the i (Am\/Am6) and V chords (E7), as shown in Example 4<\/strong>. If you want to add additional harmonic color, try adding the flatted ninth (F) to any E7 voicing\u2014you can do this just by locating the root (E) and raising it a half step. In Examples 5a\u20136e<\/strong>, you\u2019ll find various ways of playing E7b9 (E G# B D F) and switching to the i chord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might have noticed that of the these E7b9 shapes sound like diminished chords. That\u2019s because the top four notes of E7b9 form a G#dim7\/Abdim7 chord. And G#dim7\/Abdim7 contains the same notes as a handful of other diminished seventh chords\u2014see Example 7a <\/strong>to understand these relationships. Example 7b<\/strong> takes the same diminished shapes, but adds a low E, so that you can hear how they function in the context of E7b9 voicings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now that you\u2019ve got a bunch of new chord shapes at hand, you can try connecting them up and down the fretboard, as shown in Examples 8\u20139<\/strong>. For added harmonic interest, try sliding into the chords shapes from a half step below, depicted on E7b9 in Examples 10\u201311<\/strong>. Finally, now that things are really connected, try putting together all of this lesson\u2019s ideas together in a longer chord-melody study (Example 12<\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

David Hamburger is a composer, guitarist, and instructor based in Austin, Texas. www.fretboardconfidential.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Learn how to create interesting harmonies derived from a scale\u2014specifically, the ascending form of A melodic minor (A B C D E F# G#).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":127356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"Learn how to create interesting harmonies derived from a scale\u2014specifically, the ascending form of A melodic minor (A B C D E F# G#).","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1656],"tags":[1387],"ppma_author":[1586],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/12-Ways-6-\u2013-Harmonizing-a-Scale.00_00_10_17.Still001.jpg?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1","authors":[{"term_id":1586,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"david-hamburger","display_name":"David Hamburger","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/David-Hamburger.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/David-Hamburger.jpg"},"user_url":"https:\/\/www.fretboardconfidential.com\/","last_name":"Hamburger","first_name":"David","description":"David Hamburger is a composer, guitarist, and instructor based in Austin, Texas. He is the author of our best-selling Acoustic Guitar Method<\/a><\/i>."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127354"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127354"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136080,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127354\/revisions\/136080"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127354"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=127354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}