Want to view this lesson and many more like it? Sign up today.

Register now
  • A7X listening party in 10 minutes with Syn in chat!

    Hey Synners! Come join the live Life Is But a Dream... album listening party today at 5pm PT! Excited to hear your thoughts and listen through the album together!

    JOIN THE PARTY
Golden Goddess Guitar Leaderboard

The Harmonic Minor Scale - Lesson 101

Lesson by: Brian Haner Sr.

Lesson description

In this video, we look at the Harmonic minor Scale, it's modes and chord family.

Syn's tips

It's about time for you guys to start exploring Jazz tunes or, Jazz Standards as they call em, to apply this material to. Thats the place where you are going to find these complex chords to solo over with all of your new Scales and Arpeggios. Eventually we will have an area on the site where you can create your own backing tracks but until then, heres a link to some of the most popular Jazz Standard Backing Tracks to get you started.

Now you should be aware that even the most seemingly simple Jazz Standard, is a monumental task just learning the theory behind the chord changes, let alone actually soloing or playing interesting chordal accompaniment or Comping with a band or backing track.

Start with some Jazz Blues tracks in Major and Minor, then work your way up to songs like "Autumn Leaves", "Cherokee", and beyond. ALWAYS Begin With The Chords and Melody before moving on to soloing or Improvising. You can't Improvise without understanding the Heart and Soul of the tune. The best solos always have the Melody in mind and build off of them creatively to give you a oneness with the music. This can not be faked!

This is Where We Truly Need to Channel the Heart and Soul of This Community! We can only do this by exchanging videos, questions, and comments. It's the reason why going to prestigious and expensive schools really gives you the opportunity to collaborate and share ideas with other musicians.

But I believe that we live in the Golden Age of communication and technology and can provide the same opportunity for the less fortunate, those who can't afford or simply don't have time to attend these schools. We all have something to offer, and if we all really contribute, we will all be afforded the highest quality of education there is.... Who knows, maybe even better;)

Now go share with each other and have fun in the "Discussion Thread" below. Talk about Substitutions, Comping, Embellishment, Evolving the Melody, and anything else you can think of. Take your time with this, it's not about the end game because you will NEVER feel like you've reached the end. It's all about the amazing journey that learning music takes you through so PLEASE,
Enjoy The Process!
Lesson statistics
Users enrolled
716
Completions
96
Posted on
Teacher
Brian Haner Sr.