Musical scales

cloptrop

I was talking to a chap earlier hes a working musician but he isnt great on theory . I was telling him about my problem of writing riffs but not knowing how to put other instruments to them for songwriting purposes.
He told me he knows the blues scales and the ixo scale.
He then said he thinks its called the ixo scale. He jammed away to any riff I could come up with and it all sounded good.
He told me to google this ixo scale , I cant find anything on it. He swears by it.
I dont wanna go harassing him but was he using a short name for it or was it just a name he made up for his own scale .
Id love a picture of a guitar with a full scale drwn up on it , can anyone help?

unkymo

Mixolydian scale, maybe?

Malice

Moved to Playing & Techniques & Theory

Using C as an example, the Mixolydian scale is C, D, E, F, G, A, Bb, C

cloptrop

Thanks so much dude , is there a way I can save that to my computer , Id hate for it to disapear.

raindog.promo

As it is in my head (So, quite possibly wrong):

There are 12 notes between any note and its octave (the same note again, but higher)

When comparing 2 notes, you call the distance between them an interval.
Therefore there are twelve intervals between and note and its octave.

They can be laid out like this:

Root | Minor 2nd | Major 2nd | Minor 3rd | Major 3rd | Perfect 4th | Augmented 4th | Perfect 5th | Minor 6th | Major 6th | Minor 7th | Major 7th | Root Octave


From this all scales are made.
For example, the major scale picks out only the major and perfect intervals and groups them together.

ie:
Every note starting with C
Root | Minor 2nd | Major 2nd | Minor 3rd | Major 3rd | Perfect 4th | Augmented 4th | Perfect 5th | Minor 6th | Major 6th | Minor 7th | Major 7th | Root Octave
--C

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C#

---

D

---

D#

---

E

---

F

---

F#

---

G

---

G#

---

A

---

A#

---

B

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C

To form the major scale =
C - D - E - F - G - A - B - C


You could then describe a blues scale as consisting of :
http://www.myguitarworkshop.com/uploads/antony.reynaert/image/blues_lead_guitar_basics_part1/a_minor_pentatonic.png

Root | Minor 3rd | Perfect 4th | Perfect 5th | Minor 7th | Octave



Hope that helps, I tried giving as little info as necessary to avoid confusion, but when I figured the above out it demystified scales for me.

If you learn the major scale first, you can then use it as a reference point for every other scale you learn (as in "Ah, it's like the major scale but with a minor 3rd and minor 7th instead of....")

I'd be glad to answer any specific questions you have.

Malice

cloptrop wrote: »

Thanks so much dude , is there a way I can save that to my computer , Id hate for it to disapear.

If you mean the image I posted then just right-click on it and click "Save Image".

raindog.promo

Right click the picture and choose "save image as" to save it.

cloptrop

Fair play to yiz lads , Ill get working on this a bit each day , raindog you should write books , that made perfect sence when usually I start humming 5to1 by the doors whenever I try read musical theory , I found that easy to concentrate on.

raindog.promo

cloptrop wrote: »

Fair play to yiz lads , Ill get working on this a bit each day , raindog you should write books , that made perfect sence when usually I start humming 5to1 by the doors whenever I try read musical theory , I found that easy to concentrate on.

Best of luck with it. I taught myself so had to break it down into easy to understand and remember pieces.

I'd suggest doing the above, stick with the Major Scale.
Then look at how the scale can be mapped out on the guitar neck from the nut to the 12th fret, as it is in Malice's picture above.
Then break them up into smaller easier to remember patterns. So take from the 1st to 4th fret across all 6 strings and learn that pattern.

Then from the 4th to 7th frets, which looks a lot like a blues scale, yes?

Then from the 6th to 9th and so on.

This makes it wasier to remember the major scale and improves your soloing skills as well. Also what you are inadvertantly doing is learning MODES which are scales that were used before the major scale (European) way of doing things came along.

Modes can then be played over different chords.

I did actually write this all out once upon a time. If I can dig it up I'll send it on to ye.

raindog.promo

Some graphics I made to illustrate the above:


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Fandango

Raindogs is what ya want to go by. Only learned the modes recently and they help alot. Im sure, like myself, most people have used them in the past without actually knowing them (just by ear) but knowing them is a big help. While they can be a mindf&^k they are simply starting on the root (ionian/major) 2nd (dorian) 3rd (phrygian, the weird one) etc. Im a bassist so gives alot more scope for fills etc in a song for me.

paligulus1

If your playing over a G7, the Mixo scale is the Cmajor scale, except the route is G. That's how I remember it.

There's a neat way you can change one note in the Pentatonic scale to make it a bit more interesting. It is essentially the Mixolydian scale. I made a video so I won't forget it (as I did before!!!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvT22BuTCyY

narwhalthe

Click on guitar scales and the key and major/minor etc you want and this helps. You can view it as it appears on the fret board or in an other version.

http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/

Sounds like he is on about mixolydian scale.