View the full lesson at Harmonic Minor: The Five Patterns | JustinGuitar
My guitar teacher taught me that the harmonic minor is often used for soloing on the V in a minor blues.
For instance, for the V of an A-minor blues you can use a pentatonic of the A harmonic minor in the form 2-4-5-b6-7, i.e. B-D-E-F-G#. The G# in the scale raises the V chord from an Em7 to an E7.
He says that E7 on the V is far more common than Em7, and that whenever you play a dominant 7 on the V in a minor blues you are borrowing from the harmonic minor whether you realize it or not. The other notes in that pentatonic also work really well on the V, so the scale is worth learning. Good alternative to just playing Am pentatonic for the whole I-IV-V.
Yes, that harmonic minor will give you a strong resolution back to the i ; I think that’s the main reason it was created; to get that V > i cadence thatvis much stronger than v > i.
That ‘custom’ scale your teacher promotes is ‘interesting’. It works because its just the chord tones of an E7; the 1,3,5,b7, plus the b9 (F).
So its really just like a E7b9 arpeggio.
Also, within the A harmonic minor, you also have a cool dim7 chord, the G#dim7 ( G# -B - D - F) -which could also be viewed as a rootless E7b9).
And, given the symmetrical nature of dim7 chords, you essentially have 4 easy and identical shapes - G#dim7, Bdim7, Ddim7, Fdim7, that you can play as arpeggio shapes etc, over that E7, giving a variety of sounds.
1 Like
Thanks for the ideas! Really appreciated.