Rock / Blues Scales & Modes for Guitar:

The Hexatonic Scale for guitar - 4

This article © 2011

Last page on the hexatonic scale

We began looking at hexatonic scales here. On this page I'll cover the last of the four hexatonic scales which every rock/blues player should know.

It's the major pentatonic with added minor 6th, which I'll call the major hexatonic minor 6.

A word about theoretical terms

It never hurts to study and learn more music theory, in order to have a better understanding of music. Your compositional ideas, your guitar riffs and guitar solos, and your improvisations, can only be positively impacted by deepening your understanding of music theory.

But having said that, the analytical terms I'm using to describe scales and intervals are not terms that you need to know or understand in order to play well. There are rock/blues guitarists out there who have made entire careers out of doing what they do very well, but doing it instinctively, and not necessarily having the musical vocabulary to describe what they do in terms of music theory.

The four forms of hexatonic scales which I've covered on these four pages starting here are scales which many rock and blues guitar players would know, although they may not have analysed exactly what the intervals are, or how they are named. For many players, they are just 'blues scales', without specific names.

So whilst it can only improve your musicianship for you to learn some more theory, if the theory is puzzling to you, don't worry too much about that, just learn the fretboard patterns. It's possible to be a very good guitarist without necessarily being able to explain much theory.

The major hexatonic minor 6 and its relative minor

As noted on this page, the fretboard shapes/patterns for the major hexatonic minor 6 are identical to the fretboard shapes/patterns for it's relative minor, the minor hexatonic major 7.

The pattern of intervals in the major hexatonic minor 6 scale

The intervals of the major hexatonic minor 6 scale are as follows: major 2nd - major 3rd - perfect 5th - minor 6th - major 6th - octave.

G major hexatonic minor 6 - first position

Compare that with the first position E minor hexatonic major 7:

E minor hexatonic major 7 - first position

You can clearly see how the fretboard pattern or shape is the same.

The other positions of the G major hexatonic minor 6 scale are as shown below:

G major hexatonic minor 6 - second position

G major hexatonic minor 6 - third position

G major hexatonic minor 6 - fourth position

G major hexatonic minor 6 - fifth position

Back to top of page

This article © 2011. Permission has not been given for it to be reproduced anywhere else. All rights reserved.