Dark Shades

I FIRST BECAME aware of the harmonic minor scale back in high school, originally as an abstract entity I learned in music theory class, in which the seventh note of the natural minor scale was raised a half step. I later discovered that it was the “secret scale” that a certain young hot-shot, Strat-wielding shredder from Sweden named Yngwie Malmsteen was using to achieve his uber-dramatic “neoclassical metal” sound. Still, from a practical standpoint, I had no idea how to apply these two ostensibly related pieces of information to my own guitar playing. I did, however, manage to cop a ham-fisted version of what a friend of mine called the “Spanish scale,” an exotic-sounding series of notes that worked well when played over two major chords a half-step apart from each other in a back-and-forth vamp. I concluded that this scale, or at least some form of it, was probably what Iron Maiden were playing in their song “Powerslave.”

THE “SPANISH SCALE” IS ACTUALLY JUST THE HARMONIC MINOR