Yngwie's scales?

[Satch Boogie]

I was practicing my modes and relized that Yngwie plays alot of licks that are outside of the Phrygian mode. Examples are like Blackstar, Evil Eye, far from the sun, and basically everything. One lick i see everywhere that is out is this:
---7-8-7-5----------------------
------------8-7-5---------------
-------------------8-7-5-4------
----------------------------7-5-4
----------------------------------
----------------------------------

This is the lick that yngwie plays after the "chorus" in Blackstar, i got it straight from the tab book.

[Artist]

well yngwies famous for his harmonic minor scale usage....

----------------------------------------------------12-13-16-17-
--------------------------------------10-12-13-14---------------
-----------------------------9-10-13-----------------------------
------------------7-9-10-12--------------------------------------
----------7-8-11--------------------------------------------------
5-7-8-10---------------------------------------------------------

[Anton]

Yup , harmonic minor is yngwies scale used for 90% of his trademark licks , a great thing about playing yngwie stuff is that most of his solos are based in harmonic minor , and usually not too melodic , so when jamming to far beyond the sun , i dont have to learn the solo , i can just shred the f# harmonic minor scale and it sounds cool

[Devo]

tis a phrygian dominant scale with a chromatic passing note. (either B phrygian with a sharp 3rd passing note or B phrygian dominant with a natural 3rd passing note both the same)

Im not familiar with Yngwies music but I would say that he slips in alot of chromatic ornamentation into his harmonic minor scales.

EDIT: or i guess it could be a F# Locrian with a raised 6th passing note if you read it from the bottom up

[Artist]

to which scale are you refering to with your scale description devo?

If your refering to the black star lick at the top, it is a E harmonic minor (well Eb actually because he tunes down half a step) with a D natural accidental. The song is DEFINATELY in E and not a mode as someone once asked him as their question to yngwie on his site. (what a waste of a question :P)

Also could you explain this dominant phrygian you are talking of? The dominant is the 5th of the root note of a scale. (e.g. the dominant of C is G). And the Phyrgian is the mode in which the tonic has been displaced to the 3rd note of the scale (e.g. E is the 3rd note of a C major scale, so a E phrygian is (in a way, although the phrasing SHOULD be changed to highlight that it is an E phrygian and not C major) a C major scale but with E as the tonic.

[Devo]

Your right it is e harmonic minor but with just that scale to go by and since it starts on a B I was more inclined to call it B phrygian dominant.

the dominant tells you that its the fifth ('dominant') mode. phrygian is the mediant mode of the major scale but its also the dominant mode of the harmonic minor scale (aka phrygian sharp 3).

jazz folk tend to call it phrygian dominant

EDIT: I do apologise just remembered that the phrygian dominant refers to the melodic minor scale so I guess its a phrygian dominant with a natural second. Sorry bout that

[kelmaur]

been working on some harmonic minor stuff...anyone have any more harm. min. licks to share

[clnh5]

check out activeguitar.com, they have a Scale Generator, just pickt the type, i.e. blues, harmonic minor, aeolian, major, etc etc.

[sirnothingness]

I don't think Yngwie even knows the Locrian mode. Not to put him down, but I think he's stuck on the Harmonic Minor & Phrygian scales.

[the.godfather]

Harmonic Minor
Phrygian

They are the 2 main ones he plays around. And thats pretty much it. Learn both of them, and you pretty much have the Yngwie sound nailed.

[kelmaur]

clnh5..not fin dwhat im lookin gfo ron that site..thnks anyway

[Chud]

I accidently found an old Guitarist magazine where Yhgwie was teaching a lesson on modes.

Can anyone hazard a guess as to what the lesson was called? (I'll give you a clue, it's sterotypical Yngwie)


... Phrygian Hell!


Yeah, basically there's this exercise which is mainly in B phrygian dominant in 16th notes. Quite interesting. He describes it as being one of his fravorite modes and refers to it as the "Spanish Gypsy Scale"

In his article, he does seem to hammer home the point that it's vital you know all your scales otherwise you are "playing blind", so i guess he does know more then just harmonic minors, diminished and Phrygian