Yngwie Theory Question

[dr0x]

Hi All :)

First post, yay ^_^

Well of late i have been working on quite a lot of neoclassical guitar , ala Yngwie Malmsteen and also Joestumps excellent arpeggio dvd , and also theodore ziras's sweeping all night long.
I was reading an old issue of guitar techniques talking about yngwies soloing style. Now it gave an example progression, it was in the key of A Harmonic Minor , and it was two bars of Aminor then it was 2 bars of E7
Now it suggested over the first two A Natural Minor , with focus or emphasis on the A C E as they are the notes of triad of the a minor chord :-
A Natural Minor Being; A B C D E F G
then over the E7 to play E Phrygian Dominant which is : E F G# A B C D
Then to focus on the E G# B as they are the notes of a triad of a E7 Chord. And E Phrygian Dominant which is basically a displaced A Harmonic Minor scale as i think of it.

Now that all made excellent sense.

Now i was reading erics really excellent "Neoclassical Shred Guitar" article
And it had an example
This time in the key of E Minor
It said ;
"There's a very popular progression in neoclassical rock... it was used a lot in classical music, i.e. by JS Bach. In Emin, that would be Emin-D-C-B(7)"

Right so i could see the first 3 chords the Emin the DMajor and the C Major were from E Minor , oooh errr a B7 , ah then i realised it had changed to E Harmonic Minor to have a Major as the V chord.
Ok that made sense .

But then I hit a land mine,
http://www.ibreathemusic.com/articles/files/121/scale5.gif

from erics article the above image you can see,
Erm that looks like A harmonic minor to me ... the G#
Why oh why oh why would that be played as it says ;

And often, Yngwie (as an example) would use the E min scale over the first three chords, and then use the harmonic minor or phrygian-dominant one over the B.

Help !
Many many thanks

dr0x

[jazzIII]

Well, E phrygian dominant contains the same notes as A harmonic minor. You may wonder, "why call the same group of notes two different names?"

Simply because when played over the Am chord, there is a different "tonality" or mood than when played over an E7 chord. Hence the reason for calling it a different name. To break it down to a microscopic level, look at it intervallically:

Over Am chord: A=root
B=major 2nd
C=min 3rd
D=perfect 4th
E=perfect 5th
F=min 6th
G#=maj (or raised) 7th

Now, over an E7 chord...

E=root
F=min 2nd
G#=maj 3rd
A=perfect 4th
B=perfect 5th
C=min 6th
D=min 7th

As you can see, the relationship between the same notes MEANS (or sounds) something different over the different chords. So, no need to over-think anything, or feel stumped. The best way to understand the difference is to play any one of the notes over both chords seperately and listen to the colour difference. Focus on how each note "feels" over the two chords. Then the reason for the name change will be obvious.

Hope this makes some sense!

Kel

[ChrisJ]

Hi dr0x,
You are right, the scale notated is A harmonic minor so it is a typo, they made a mistake, don't let it confuse you. You have it right, they don't.
-CJ

[jazzIII]

Hehe

I must have been sleep-typing :cool:

[dr0x]

Thanks so much for the quick replies guys :)

Chris , thanks for clearing that up for me ,
and Jazz even though you sleep typed it was a brilliant reply ! I am going to print it and add it too my little guitar folder :)
Really was useful too.