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Evil Sounding Scales

Music Theory
GuitarBoy666  
15 Feb 2008 18:11 | Quote
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What are some "evil" sounding scales?
Something like

http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/guitar_scales.php?scch=A&scchnam=Pelog+2&get2=Get
Position 12

It sounds kinda cool. What are some more that have a strange/evil suond?
And the one in Mwtallica's song, I think, Escape, the solo for it sounds a bit weird. What scale is it?
What kind of music would they be best suited for?
Guitarslinger124  
15 Feb 2008 20:12 | Quote
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Harmonic minor is the way to go...or hungarian minor...check them out.
GuitarBoy666  
15 Feb 2008 20:15 | Quote
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Cool thanks I will do that right now

Edit:
I was wondering this for a while as well though;
Why the hell does the scales section only have 15 frets !??!
Why can't there be 22? Can this be changed to a 22 fret guitar because leaving the other 7 frets out is a bit... well I don't know but it is too too too much work for us who don't know much about scales or can't figure em out.
Guitarslinger124  
15 Feb 2008 21:08 | Quote
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all the notes repeat themselves after the 11th fret.
mattmurray  
15 Feb 2008 23:16 | Quote
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diminished scale, or hungarian minor, but with the hungarian minor i treat the leading tone as the root note, like the F hungarian minor I revolve everything around the E note, sounds extremely dissonant and uneasy
GuitarBoy666  
15 Feb 2008 23:39 | Quote
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@GS,
Oh yeah that's right... there is only 12 notes and when you are at the 12 fret, it is EBGDAE again.
So therefore, if something goes one way on the first 3 frets... the 13th,14th, and 15th frets would be the same form/shape right? (Talking about scales)
I am tired I have a headache so sorry if the above does not make much sense.
blackholesun  
16 Feb 2008 06:28 | Quote
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Try the Phrygian mode as well. The pelog scale isn't how it's actually how it's meant to sound. It's one of the two main scales that is used in the Gamalan music of Indonesia. Western music is based on 12 tone equal temperament (12 notes in an octave equally spread out), whereas the pelog is approximately based on 9 tone equal temperament. Therefore you can't play it exactly on a guitar, and what's on the scale page is just a loose approximation. The other main scale/tuning system is called slendro, and its five pitches are roughly equally spaced within the octave.
GuitarBoy666  
16 Feb 2008 10:46 | Quote
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Oh, well I still thought playing it in 12th position kinda sounded cool. I will check out the Phrygian mode.

Also a question:
What are good guitar books that really help you learn theory?
What are good guitar books that have like every scale imaginable?
How much?
blackholesun  
16 Feb 2008 14:06 | Quote
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To be honest, I think you can learn theory from the internet just as well as from a book. Same goes for scales.

I wasn't saying you can't use the pelog scale cos it's incorrect, it's up to you, i was just saying that it's just an approximation. I did quite a bit of work on it in A Level music.
shredguitar17  
16 Feb 2008 14:08 | Quote
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You can also use your own scale, ie Chromatics. Sometimes to make the harmonic minor sound more my style, or more "dramatic" i will deviant off the scale and play a few diminished chromatics, mainly because i like diminished arpeggios. try some diminished arpeggios, and either chicken pick, or sweep them. at fast speeds, they sound very evil.
Guitarslinger124  
16 Feb 2008 14:23 | Quote
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finally!!!!! shredguitar17 you are my new best friend! the last time i brought chromatics up i got a few people pretty upset.
blackholesun  
16 Feb 2008 14:46 | Quote
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shredguitar17 says:
at fast speeds, they sound very evil.


holding on to a "wrong" note for a bit longer also sounds evil.
shredguitar17  
16 Feb 2008 14:58 | Quote
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haha really guitarslinger124? I love chromatics!
Guitarslinger124  
16 Feb 2008 15:06 | Quote
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yea i was saying how you can really play any scale in any key using chromatics...and well...chaos ensued...i use chromatics all the time...
blackholesun  
16 Feb 2008 19:13 | Quote
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yup, i remember that lol
blackholesun  
16 Feb 2008 20:24 | Quote
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Not an evil scale, but playing both the top E string open and the 5th fret of the B string (also E) at the same time, gradually bending the B string up by half a fret can sound pretty evil. The two sound waves overlap and you get a nice pulsing sound due to the constructive and destructive interference. You can control how much the pulsing occurs by changing the pitch of the B string 5th fret. Have fun and experiment with it.
shredguitar17  
16 Feb 2008 23:42 | Quote
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Yes yes very true. Just play around and after a while you will develop that evil feel.
telecrater  
16 Feb 2008 23:56 | Quote
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I made my own evil scales for i riff i came up with. One little thing i have worked on for a while starts on B - C - C# - E - F - F# - A - B



^ = Bend
--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------
-------7-----------9^---------9--10--11-----------
----------9--8--7-------------9--10--11-----------
--9---------------------------7--8---9------------

GuitarBoy666  
17 Feb 2008 11:11 | Quote
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Those both sound cool.
Tele, that really reminds me of Black Sabbath style playing. Tony Iommi always had an evil sound. That sounds a lot like it though. It's cool.
telecrater  
17 Feb 2008 12:51 | Quote
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yeah i was listening to mudhoney and black sabath when i came up with it.
Guitarslinger124  
17 Feb 2008 19:18 | Quote
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here is something pretty evil sounding i came up with....and i built the riff using chromatics guitarboy666:

i play it at 163bpm with a lot of distortion.


e:------------------------|
B:------------------------|
G:------------------------|
D:------------------------|
A:-5-5------------5-5-5---|
D:--7-6-5-6-8-ph7--8-7-6--|
telecrater  
17 Feb 2008 19:26 | Quote
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here is another riff i came up with right about the time i came up with with one I posted above. It's a slow feel to it.



-----------------------------------------------------------6--------
-----------------3->---------------------------------3-/-7---7-6 >>-
-----------4-3-4-------4-3-->>>>---------------4-3-4----------------
-1-/-(2)---------------------------1-/-(2)--------------------------
-1-/-(2)---------------------------1-/-(2)--------------------------
-0---------------------------------0--------------------------------

Afro_Raven  
18 Feb 2008 08:26 | Quote
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LOCRIAN!LOCRIAN!LOCRIAN!LOCRIAN!

Is it just my imagination or has no one posted that yet? Locrian is possibly the ultimate mode in evil solos (aside from tasteful use of chromatics)

Afro
blackholesun  
18 Feb 2008 11:57 | Quote
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I would say the Locrian is better for riffs than for solos though.
shredguitar17  
6 Mar 2008 02:15 | Quote
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I would actually like to agree with Afro, Locrian is used well for dark sounding solos. I can understand what you mean though blackholesun, but if you look at the enharmonics, and diatonics of it, with it having the most flats (4 flats one diminished- I° bII biii IV bV bVI bvii) and it being diminished itself by chordal terms, then it is really a dark scale. But I know you already know that. But is there a scale, or mode that has more flats and diminished notes than the Locrian, that is not another diminished scale? Because if so I want to use it!
Guitarslinger124  
6 Mar 2008 10:22 | Quote
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Cb major?
blackholesun  
6 Mar 2008 11:30 | Quote
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lol Cb major = B major. That's cheating!
Guitarslinger124  
6 Mar 2008 14:28 | Quote
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hehe...hey it got me through highschool! but it really depends on the on the context. i dont understand it well enough to explain...but something like why you say Bb major and not A# major. anyway...thats got plenty o' flats for ya...or you could do C# major........or should i say Db major hehe...
blackholesun  
6 Mar 2008 19:54 | Quote
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I think what shredguitar17 meant is "is there a scale which contains more flat notes RELATIVE to the major scale?" The Spanish 8 tone scale is the same as the locrian, but with the 4th flattened as well. There's a limit to how evil you can make a solo sound purely from scale choice though. A large part of it is how you play the notes. Dissonance is always good, be it either from when you hang on to an "outside" note for longer than if it was just used as a passing note, or by bending notes slightly out of tune. You could think about FX as well, such as using a Whammy Pedal.
shredguitar17  
7 Mar 2008 00:06 | Quote
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Yeah you pretty much nailed it blackholesun. I will have to go back to the ultimate-guitar.com forums and inform him on this. I didn't think there was any mode or scale relative to the major scale that had more flats than the locrian mode, except by using chromatics.
Notim  
7 Mar 2008 20:07 | Quote
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I like the Cromatic,penatonic,Bebop sorta
shredguitar17  
21 Mar 2008 09:22 | Quote
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Its a hungarian mode of the hungarian minor. It actually is: I bII biii bIV bV bVI bvii. yes, six flats. It is really wierd, but hey it is very evil, diminished sounding. Note, it is not the hungarian minor scale. it is a scale that is not on here. but it was a scale that my music teacher showed me. so the guy on ultimate-guitar.com was technically wrong and right in the sense that there is a scale with 6 flats, but not in the mode of the major scales.
Skold  
21 Mar 2008 18:47 | Quote
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I don't know about evil sounding scales, but do you remember The Devil's Third? Yeah.
blackholesun  
21 Mar 2008 21:19 | Quote
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Skold says:
I don't know about evil sounding scales, but do you remember The Devil's Third? Yeah.


You talking about the tritone interval? The augmented 4th/diminished 5th? It was called Diabolus in Musica (The Devil in Music) because it was believed to be so evil!
Skold  
21 Mar 2008 21:28 | Quote
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I know what's it's called, I just think "The Devil's Third" sounds more bad-ass, lol.
league  
24 Mar 2008 18:23 | Quote
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Lol. Devil's third sounds like Marylin Manson. Doesent C# mean youre progressing higher and Db mean going lower. Locrian is pretty evil. Dimebag was pretty good at chromatic solos.
DSheffar  
27 Apr 2008 15:32 | Quote
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Hirajoshi, the great Marty Friendman "made" up his version, which turned out to be the hirajoshi with a flat fifth, I do believe haha,
DSheffar  
27 Apr 2008 15:42 | Quote
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Guitarslinger124 says:
hehe...hey it got me through highschool! but it really depends on the on the context. i dont understand it well enough to explain...but something like why you say Bb major and not A# major. anyway...thats got plenty o' flats for ya...or you could do C# major........or should i say Db major hehe...




Its because you'd start using double sharps and flats (x)(bb) which is gay, so instead of turning to an a# scale, where you would have double sharps on some notes, you 'make' those notes become flat, its really just so you arent trying to memorise too much stuff, thats how the current system developped.
bodaciousb  
30 Jun 2009 14:21 | Quote
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guitar boy 666!!! you asked about what books you should get? you should get two books from the guitar grimoire series; the scales and modes book and the exercise book (24$ each). i am a self taught guitarist for about three years, and this is all i will ever need. it gives you all 5-8 tone scales, including exotic scales, as well as keyboard fingerings, sweep scales, modes and numeric diagrams for intervallic purposes, recommended chords to play over the scales, and the exercise book gives you sufficient exercises to play really fast (required you have a metronome). after seeing this post, i made an account to this website for the sole purpose of telling you how efficient these books are. THAT'S how useful these books are. You will not be disappointed, and much like me, it will be the best 48$ you ever spent in your life!!!
BodomBeachTerror  
30 Jun 2009 14:36 | Quote
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this is super old

but since its brought up again, chromatics are by far the creepiest


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