The UNDISCOVERD GEM: Mixolydian b6 scale for AWESOME effects!

[00:00:00]Good day to you.

[00:00:01]Now, today it's all about duality. Happy versus sad, light versus dark, good versus evil, and fake versus real.

[00:00:08]Now, if you're new to the channel, uh my name is Rob, and I make guitar tutorials about more advanced subjects for guitar.

[00:00:14]Now, in music, we have scales that sound pretty straightforward, right? Like major scales, minor scales, pentatonic scales. They are the familiar sounds of our Western music. And there are special scales, >> [music] >> and sometimes very special scales. Now, today we're looking at one of the most fascinating scales out there and a secret weapon for many film composers.

[00:00:36]It is the Mixolydian flat six scale.

[00:00:39]It's mysterious, it's emotional, and it is exotic. It's all those things in one, and it manages to sound both bright and dark at the same time. And today is the day that you learn all about the Mixolydian flat six scale, and you'll never be the same. The way we will explore the scale is by looking at the theory, uh the names and origin of the scale, and then we'll look at chords in the scale and see some typical progressions that work best. Now, after that, we will look at how to improvise with the scale. Let's start. The Mixolydian flat six scale is essentially a major scale with a flattened sixth and a flattened seventh degree. It contains five whole steps and two half steps. And when played up and down, it sounds like this. [music] >> [music] >> Now, to understand where it comes from, uh let's first look at the regular Mixolydian scale.

[00:01:33]Now, the Mixolydian scale is the fifth mode of a major scale, meaning that it starts on the fifth note of a major scale. Now, compared to the regular major scale, it has a flattened seventh degree, and that single note already gives it a slightly darker and less stable character. Now, the Mixolydian flat six scale takes it one step further. The scale still has that flattened seventh, but on top of that, it also flattens the uh sixth degree.

[00:01:59]So, two lowered notes in a major scale, and that's where things start to get interesting. Now, the characteristic notes of the scale are the major third, the flat sixth, and the flat seventh.

[00:02:10]Now, those three notes create a unique combination that results in an amazing sound.

[00:02:16]>> [music] [music] >> Another remarkable feature is that the tonic is surrounded by whole steps on both sides, >> [music] >> and that gives the scale a slightly floating quality, almost as if it wants to drift into the whole tone territory, but then changes its mind at the last second. Now, the section of the scale that contains the third, the fourth, the fifth, and the minor sixth has a distinct exotic flavor because of the placement of the half steps.

[00:02:49]>> [music] >> Now, what makes this scale so powerful is the emotional contrast built into the structure of the scale. The lower half is essentially major and sounds bright and open and even optimistic. But, the upper half tells a different story.

[00:03:10]There, the flattened sixth and the flattened seventh introduce a darker, more minor character. And that is the magic of this Mixolydian flat sixth scale. It lives between two worlds. Part of it is bright and sunny, and part of it is dark and rainy. It combines light and dark, major and minor, and that duality is exactly why I love it so much. Now, one reason this scale sounds so exotic is that it also appears in Indian music, and there it's known as a raga Shadja Kaushik. Now, let's look at another arbitrary name for the scale.

[00:03:44]The Aeolian mode is better known as the natural minor scale. It's one of the modes of the major scale, and it has that melancholic sound that we all know from thousands of pop songs and rock songs. If we take an A aeolian scale and raise the minor third C to the major third C sharp, the tonic changed from a minor seventh chord to a dominant seventh chord. And that is exactly why the mixolydian flat six scale is sometimes called the aeolian dominant scale. Now, what I find much more interesting is the relation with the melodic minor scale. The mixolydian flat six scale is actually the fifth mode of the melodic minor scale. And that means if you take a C melodic minor scale and start it on the fifth note G, you get a G mixolydian flat six scale. So, these two scales are closely related.

[00:04:33]In fact, you can think of them as conceptual mirror images of each other.

[00:04:37]The melodic minor scale starts as a minor scale and ends with a major sixth and major seventh.

[00:04:44]While the mixolydian flat six scale does the opposite.

[00:04:48]It starts like a major scale but ends with a minor sixth and a minor seventh.

[00:04:53]So, while the melodic minor scale begins in darkness and gradually moves towards the light, the mixolydian flat six scale begins in light and slowly drifts into the shadows. So, two musical worlds hiding in the same scale.

[00:05:09]Now, what is remarkable about the mixolydian flat six scale isn't just the scale itself. The harmony is pretty unusual, too. In a regular major scale, we'll get a nice balance between three major and three minor chords. Everything feels organized and even a bit predictable. The mixolydian flat six scale, however, clearly had other ideas.

[00:05:29]Instead, it contains only two major chords and only two minor chords. And the remaining three chords are dissonant. Now, we get two diminished chords and even one augmented chord. So, right away, the harmonic landscape becomes much more colorful and much less predictable. Now, let's hear all the triads of the scale played one after another.

[00:05:53]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Is it happy? Yes. Is it sad? Yes. So, that makes it pretty confusing, right?

[00:06:18]Now, let's look at some chord progressions that really bring out the character of the scale. The best choices are the 2-5-1, the 4-5-1, and the 4-flat-7-1.

[00:06:30]The reason is simple.

[00:06:31]Together, these chords contain all the notes that define the scale, revealing its unique sound. Now, let's hear the 2-5-1 progression.

[00:06:44]>> [music] >> And now the 4-5-1 progression.

[00:06:50]And finally, the 4-flat-7-1 progression.

[00:06:53]>> [music] >> Let's take things a step further and harmonize the scale using seventh chords. And the resulting chord collection is quite interesting.

[00:07:04]First of all, there isn't a single major seventh chord in the entire scale.

[00:07:09]Instead, we get two dominant seventh chords, one built on the tonic and another one built on the seventh degree.

[00:07:15]And we also find two half-diminished chords built on the second and third degree. And then, we arrive at perhaps the most intriguing chord of the scale, the augmented major seventh chord. Now, this chord somehow manages to sound dissonant and beautiful at the same time.

[00:07:33]It is the musical equivalent of a mean but beautiful woman.

[00:07:39]Let's listen to all of the seventh chords in the scale played in a sequence.

[00:07:48]>> [music] >> Now, so far we explored the theory and the harmony of the Mixolydian flat six scale. But, theory is only half the story. The real question is, what can you actually do with it? Now, in the next examples, I'll show you how I use the harmony of the Mixolydian flat six scale to create interesting chord progressions and interesting musical ideas. The first example is in a progressive style written in E Mixolydian flat six.

[00:08:19]Now, my goal wasn't simply to play the available chords. Instead, I wanted to explore some of the characteristic colors that are hidden in the scale.

[00:08:28]Now, rather than using the fully defined chords all the time, I started with the tonic E major and added the notes that give the scale its personality.

[00:08:37]The major third G sharp, the minor sixth C, and the minor seventh D. The first riff looks like this.

[00:08:45]>> [music] >> Now, the low and the high E strings establish the root of the E major chord.

[00:08:59]The G sharp on the third string provides the major third.

[00:09:02]And the notes on the fourth string, D and C, add the characteristic flat seventh and flat sixth colors.

[00:09:10]Together, they create that unmistakable Mixolydian flat six flavor. The second riff is even more interesting. Again, I started from an E major sound, but this time I added the 11th A.

[00:09:22]The next chord uses the same basic idea, but in a different voicing. And incidentally, you could interpret this chord as an A minor major seventh chord over E.

[00:09:33]Now, we arrive at one of my favorite chords in the progression that I mentioned before, the major 7 sharp 5 chord.

[00:09:41]Now, this beautiful sound was famously used by guitarist and composer Steve Vai in his incredible, awesome, and beautiful masterpiece "Little Pretty".

[00:09:50]Now, we'll find two of these major 7 sharp 5 chords in this song that is written in the B flat Dorian sharp 4 mode. Watch my tutorial about this scale to learn more. These chords in "Little Pretty" sound like this.

[00:10:04]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Back to our example. The major 7 sharp 5 chord in the example in our example is a C major 7 sharp 5 chord, and that sounds like this.

[00:10:30]>> [music] >> And finally, we have uh reached the last chord in the progression, which is the same as the second chord, but this time over an A bass, and that transforms it into a proper A minor uh A minor major 9 chord. And once we add the drums, the bass guitar, and additional guitar layers, the result sounds like this.

[00:10:54]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Now, for the next example, I wanted to explore a completely different style.

[00:11:36]And this one is more like a modern pop song featuring acoustic guitar strumming and melodic background lines. The progression is written in C mixolydian flat six.

[00:11:47]Now for this progression, I combined a C major chord with a G minor and F minor chord.

[00:11:52]And G minor contains the minor seventh of the scale, the B flat.

[00:11:56]And F minor contains the minor sixth of the scale, A flat.

[00:12:00]Now that contrast between the major tonic and the minor subdominant and minor dominant chord is one of the things that gives this progression its unique character. I also used a C major chord over B flat together with an A flat major 13 chord without a fifth.

[00:12:15]Those colors fit naturally within the harmonic world of the scale and add a rich quality to the sound. The chords together sound like this.

[00:12:24]>> [music] [music] >> And when we add bass, drums, and the rest of the arrangement, the progression comes to life like this.

[00:12:48]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Now have you noticed how the music never fully commits to being happy or sad? It constantly balances between the two. And that is exactly what makes this mixolydian flat six scale such a fascinating creative tool. So now that we have explored the theory, the harmony, and some compositional ideas, it is It's for the fun part, improvisation. Now, when improvising with the Mixolydian flat six scale, there are essentially two approaches.

[00:13:34]Now, the first one is to use the scale over a dominant seventh chord or a dominant altered chord uh within a progression in a certain key. The second approach is to use it over a Mixolydian flat six progression where all the chords are derived from the Mixolydian flat six scale. Either way, you'll need at least one scale pattern under your fingers. Now, fortunately, if you are already familiar with the melodic minor scale, then you're halfway there.

[00:14:00]Remember, the Mixolydian flat six scale is simply the fifth mode of a melodic minor scale. So, if you want to play the C Mixolydian flat six scale, you can think of the F melodic minor starting from C. Now, if you're not yet uh comfortable with melodic minor uh patterns, then I recommend starting with these two patterns.

[00:14:33]>> [music] >> One particular effective use of the Mixolydian flat six scale uh is over a five chord in a two five one progression. In this example, we're in the key of C minor. Over the altered G7 sharp five chord, I use the G Mixolydian flat six scale. The flat sixth is also the sharp fifth and highlights the altered dominant sound while being connected to that harmony. It sounds like this.

[00:15:11]>> [music] [music] >> The next licks are played over a uh uh progression in C Mixolydian flat six, and I started off with introducing the mixolydian flat six sound by using the characteristic part of the scale, the third, the fourth, the fifth, and the flat sixth. After that, I played a slight lick that was played by Brett Vaughn, who is a great guitarist, by the way, and it is built around slide patterns and uses a systematic descending fingering approach. The repeating movement creates a smooth and flowing line that naturally outlines the scale.

[00:15:50]And towards the end, I introduced a lick based on an A flat major 7 sharp 5 arpeggio, which adds another distinctive color from the scale.

[00:16:10]>> [music] [music] >> Now, of course, scales are only part of the story. Arpeggios can be incredibly effective, as well. In fact, arpeggios are one of the best ways to emphasize the unique character of a scale because they clearly outline specific chord colors. For this example, I selected arpeggios that contain the most characteristic notes of the C mixolydian flat six scale, and those are the E, A flat, and B flat, the major third, the flat sixth, and the flat seventh.

[00:16:58]The phrase begins with a C major triad arpeggio, and from there it moves into a B flat major triad arpeggio, followed by the E minor 7 flat 5 arpeggio.

[00:17:09]The line finally resolves to the notes of an F minor major 7 arpeggio that introduces the A flat for the first time, which gives the lick um a dark and typical Mixolydian flat six sound ending.

[00:17:22]Each of the sounds is strongly connected to the harmony of the C Mixolydian flat six scale. And together they create a line that doesn't just run through the scale, but it actually reveals its personality.

[00:17:37]>> [music] [music] >> Now, I don't know what your conclusion is, but mine is that this is an absolute beautiful scale that evokes so many emotions because of its duality in major and minor. From mystical to unsettling to exotic, this scale can do it all.

[00:18:01]Now, I suggest trying this out and make some beautiful music with it. And do check my ebook store because in time there will be an ebook of this subject available for you to download.

[00:18:12]Now, if you want to explore another great and amazing scale, then watch this tutorial.

[00:18:18]Now, I want to thank you all for watching and a very special thanks to my patrons that make it all possible for me to do this work.

[00:18:25]Thanks, and I see you next time.