Metal scales in Key of A minor and E minor anyone???

Hi,
Can u guys recommend some good metal scales in those keys?

well, the key doesnt make too much of a difference. In Both keys common scales are the natural minor, harmonic minor, the chromatic as well as diminished scale and some pentatonics as well. These will definitely get you started.

You should also check out the Phrygian mode. It sounds very Spanish by nature, but you can get some great metal leads out of it.

true, sometimes you will also stumble on the Locrian mode, but for the most metalbands it stays with the ones i listed plus -thanks for the addition case!- the phrygian mode

the dorian mode has some really sweet happy but sad sounding things you can play. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzzPy-ynRLo&safe_search=on look at 3:27 - amazing and in dorian i think. The Aeolean scale is what i call the Buckethead scale because he playes in that scale always.

thanks for this so far, lets say i wanna play a metal scale over the following chords, Aminor; Gmajor; Fmajor; Emajor
I normaly use the a natural minor scale but when i try for example the A harmonic minor doesnt work. . . and when i play the A harmonic minor over E major I get a middle eastern sound out of it.
So back to the chord progression, what would you guys consider to be a good metal scale to play over that?

thanks in advance

A Harmonic Minor definitely is the best choice IMO. It sounds very middle eastern by nature since the #5, but it also caters to the E major as well as the A minor and still contains the notes for F maj and G maj.

A lot of metal players like to use the Harmonic minor intervals in solos, since it has a distinct and different tonality to it.

OR

You could try to change keys every time the E major chord comes up XD
(...I don't recommend that)

Good luck man ;)

@Admiral

haha no problem man :D I love using that scale in a lot of my leads

Well well, Reinhardt, you seem to be in love qith the andalusian cadence! thats the name of the Aminor,Gmajor,Fmajor,Emajor progressions. It sounds very spanish, i think you should maybe try a different chord progression for a metal song. Maybe that could be a start to make it sound less "middle eastern" and spanish. The harmonic minor scale is as case said, a good way to play over the emajor as it contains the note : Ab. This note is in the harmonic minor scale, as well as in the ascending minor scale. You can take many other scales, maybe an A minor pentatonic scale and also insert an "Ab". But I think you should start off with maybe using a different chord progressions as the progression itself sounds very spanish. And I think with the harmonic minor scale you get a lovely metal sound, a very evil sound, especially if you harmonise your melody lines.

Thats exactly it Admiral! then My question should rather be what metal chord progressions to play with ect scales.

well, there are millions of progressions, you should probably check out some metal bands and look at their chord progressions. I suggest you check out some Iron maiden, megadeth and probably my favourite avenged sevenfold. For example they use the harominc minor scale very well to get a good metal sound. (Listen to the verse riff of "beast and the harlot" by avenged sevenfold, it is a really nice, evil metal riff IMO) You can pretty much take any progression, but i would start off with picking a minor key (say D minor) and then use powerchords to create a melody, add some palm muting and voila, you should get started! But try to stay away from spanish sounding progressions! ^^ Altough spanish metal would be a very interesting new form of metal.

I would definently check A7X because they have some of the best sounding guitarwork ever, and especialy Zackys chord progressions, and then you can see how well Syn can solo over them.

Haha admiral you just had to ask, the reason why I want to mix some metal into my playing is becasue these guys inspired me recently.
They mix metal with spanish so well its bladdy amazing. I just bought their latest album check it out

http://www.youtube.com/user/chechoverry#p/a
http://www.seiscuerdas.net/
https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/seiscuerdas2 (can listen to album samples)

Definitely try making up some chord progression based around the Phrygian mode though, it will give you that spanish mood, but can yield a very amazing metal sound as well.

Also using a lot of minor chords will help you get that traditional heavy metal sound (Key C: A Minor, E Minor, D Minor OR F Major, E Minor, D Minor, A Minor)

Good luck man ;)

And definitely check out Megadeth like Admiral said, they're my favorite metal band :D

Oh, whats the song called at 1:38 in the promotional video on youtube? I quite liked that arrangement.
Well, i think we kind of all got you wrong here ^^ I imagined something else under the name "spanish metal". These guys make more world-music, even if they have played metal in the past and are influenced by it, they are not playing metal. I thought you were speaking about heavy guitars, furious riffs, etc.
But theses guys are also using the minor scales (melodic & harmonic) and i don't know how far they are into using modes. But as said, with the scales we named you can get the sound you want.

Ahh, no but they play alot of metal riffs and licks if you listen to the cd (only acousticly). CHeck out the other links i posted. They also have a cover of Iron maiden Losfers World. That song at 1:38 is Lagrimas De Sangre.
I think you will like their latest album, its definatly worth the buy.
CHeers

I listened to their stuff today, and its quite cool! I found the song, its not lagrimas del sangre its vientos del sur, great song actually. I looked at some of their stuff and they use besides the minor scales as i said also the phrygian mode, and the diminished scale.

Check out the CD Frontera by Strunz and Farah. It's dual acoustic with bass and drums. Lots of middle eastern and spanish scales at blistering speeds but very melodic and moody. It's nothing close to metal but you could get a good idea of the chord progressions and scales you want to play in a metal style.

I got that CD :) very good yes but not metal as you said.