I NTENSEGUITA R
Randy Rhoads Revisited (Hungarian Minor)
This month’s question comes from Mike Ridner of Miami, Florida.
Mike asks, “My guitar teacher said that Randy Rhoads’ solo in ‘Mr.
Crowley’ uses a harmonic minor scale with passing tones. I could
have sworn I read an
article that said Rhoads
used a different scale
than this. Is my teacher
correct? If not, could
you please tell me what
scale he used and provide a few fingerings?”
and all keys anywhere on the fretboard – pretty friggin’ cool when you
think about it! It’s just a matter of knowing the pattern that’s underneath your fingers for whatever key you may be in.
Examples 7 and 10 are horizontal fingerings that allow
you to cover more ground
but are slightly trickier to
blaze through due to the
position changes.
Your guitar teacher is
mistaken. For the solo in
“Mr. Crowley,” Rhoads
used a scale called the
Hungarian minor. Yes,
it’s a real scale and it
doesn’t need to be
served with goulash.
The Hungarian and
harmonic minor are,
however, very similar
in formula and sound.
The formula for the
harmonic minor scale is
1, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6, 7, 8va,
while the formula for the
Hungarian minor scale is
1, 2, b3, #4, 5, b6, 7 and
8va. With just the differ-
ence of a sharp fourth
or a natural fourth, it’s
easy to see how people
could get this mixed up.
Speaking of getting these
fingerings up to speed, I
highly recommend practicing
them with a metronome. Start
slowly and make sure you
are practicing all of them at
the same tempo, eventually
building your speed. Some
fingerings may feel more
comfortable than others.
You’ll want to increase your
metronome speed for these,
but resist the temptation. Use
alternate picking and be sure
to approach all the fingerings
starting with a downstroke
as well as with an upstroke.
This way you’ll eventually
feel comfortable approaching a line or phrase either
way. Lastly, practice them in a
cycle of fourths or fifths.
This scale was largely
popularized by Ritchie
Blackmore of Deep
Purple fame, which is
most likely where Randy
picked it up. Yngwie
Malmsteen also occasionally uses this scale,
showing his Blackmore-influenced lines as well.
That about wraps it for this
month. If you are interested in
having me answer any questions you may have, contact
me at Toshi@TOSHIISEDA.
com or intseguitr@aol.com.
For those of you on MySpace,
go to myspace.com/toshiiseda. Thanks for reading this
month, and remember, “Who
dares wins!”
I’ve provided ten usable fingerings for you to learn. The first four fingerings all start on each finger of your fretting hand – first, second,
third and fourth. As most of you who have been tuning in for a while
know, I believe a guitarist should have multiple ways to get to the
sound they are looking for – don’t rely upon only one or two fingerings to get your desired sound. I’ve stated this before: all twelve notes
of the Western music vocabulary are underneath your fingers within
any five frets. By extending either your index finger or your pinkie finger by one fret, after the one finger per fret rule, you can play in any
Toshi Iseda
Toshi Iseda is an Alumnus of the prestigeous Berklee College of Music and the American
Conservatory of Music. He has been featured in Guitar Player, Guitar World and Guitar/
Guitar One magazines, and is a former instructor at the National Guitar Workshop and
former instructor at the American Institute of Guitar. He is considered the #1 instructor in
Central Tennessee.
toshi@toshiiseda.com intseguitr@aol.com
toshiiseda.com myspace.com/toshiiseda
