Demonstrating The Modes of Harmonic Minor [MUSIC THEORY / SCALES]

The modes of harmonic minor are seldom explored and often misunderstood, but they contain an entire universe of abstract harmonies. Although the 1st and 5th modes are fairly common, I think more attention should be given to some of the others as they can create truly unique sounds.

MOST USEFUL, RANKED (in my opinion)
Harmonic Minor (mode 1)
Phrygian Dominant (mode 5)
Dorian #4 (mode 4)
Ionain #5 (mode 3)
Lydian #2 (mode 6)
Locrian Natural 6 (mode 2)
Ultralocrian (mode 7)

At 8:00 I forgot to include the flat signs after the E's when talking about A Dim chords
At 10:18 I should have said "A Augmented Major Seventh", not A Augmented Seventh.

Special thanks to my Patreon Supporters for sponsoring these videos. This one took a while. If you enjoy the charts, you should thank them :)

Table Of Contents
00:00 Intro
01:18 Harmonic Minor Chords
05:40 DEMO Harmonic Minor
06:24 The Second Mode
08:41 DEMO Locrian Natural Six
09:10 The Third Mode
10:20 DEMO Ionian Sharp Five
10:56 The Fourth Mode
12:10 DEMO Dorian Sharp Four
13:44 The Fifth Mode
15:12 DEMO Phyrgian Dominant
15:57 The Sixth Mode
17:37 DEMO Lydian Sharp Two
18:21 The Seventh Mode
19:28 DEMO ULTRA LOCRIAN DO NOT LISTEN

[niallgalaxy]

8:20 did you forget to put the flat symbol on the Eb notes in the chords?

[drewdavis]

That "Warning: Advanced Music Theory" thumbnail is like scaring ants away from a picnic by pouring sugar on the ground.

[JensLarsen]

Thank you for the shout-out, Jake! I really appreciate that 🙏

[tommydee]

The fact this is free tells us we’re living in an amazing time. The way you frame these lessons is flawless. I’ve learned more in a few videos then I have in years of standard lessons. People take this for granted. This information is gold. Pure gold. Thank you for doing this.

[velvetsteele]

This channel never fails to make me grateful and joyful. Every-single-freakin-video is amazing! God bless.

[pereh]

The more Jake says he doesn't like writing music in Locrian, SuperLocrian, UltraLocrian... the more I want him to produce Locrian music. He makes it sound awesome.

[SignalsMusicStudio]

I'm in love with that augmented sound from Ionan #5, it's just blissfully weird to my ears

[philipgreenwood]

This instructor stands out for 2 main reasons:
1. His communication is razor sharp. All the goodies are provided in a clear, concise way
2. He has immense phrasing. Whilst his solos are not nuclear-strength shred they are just sooo correct. I'm in awe at how each solo contains pure golden nuggets of melodic genius.

I've got a list of guitar tubes but Jake definitely sits up at the top for "how-to" and "why"

[tyr]

Jake: "I'm trying to drag out anything usable from this scale"
*writes a gorgeous progression with a beautiful solo*

[felonyx]

The crazy ultra locrian won't make anything that gets played on the radio, but it is very video game final level. Diving into the lair of evil, death around every corner, if the player wants some stable chord resolutions they'll have to fight their way to the end and earn them.

[Wind-njxz]

Jake: Ultralocrian is really hard to use because we don't get many of the notes that are important to making good sounding music
Also Jake: *Uses it to create the best track in the entire video*

[federicosilvestri]

Honestly they sound all beautiful to me. I just really like these darker scales. My favorite is phrygian dominant, but others are nice too

[xblinketx]

OMG, finally. I am so sick of a youtubers explaining major scale modes for the 1000th time. Now we get what we've been all waiting for - harmonic minor modes. Next - melodic minor modes? Please :) You're doing a great job Jake.

[Mr.Bright]

In the 16 years I’ve been playing guitar, never have I progressed so much from first watching your videos only about 6 or so months ago. Really appreciate the clear and concise way that you explain music!

[MyNameAkhim]

Aside from the Phrygian Dominant and the base mode, I’ve had a lot of trouble using the other modes of harmonic minor in writing so this is EXTREMELY helpful! Especially since I write a lot of metal stuff

[Kaskh]

That Lydian#2 is ominous and beautiful. I love it. Possibly my favorite mode of harmonic minor

[nandorondelli]

I really like your choice of demonstrating all these modes taking the same note as root instead of always using the notes of A harmonic minor to build what would be B Locrian 6, C Ionian #5 etc. I've seen lots of people struggling with modes when they´re presented using all the same notes (like C Ionian, D dorian, E phrygian etc), because their ears just keep gravitating towards that first root note. Building all these modes from A, in my opinion, highlights the differences in sound so much more precisely! Great video!

[armandogiordano]

Please do also the modes of melodic minor and harmonic major this way! It' s such an insightful way of demonstrating modes and you' re so good at it.

[MrPagemusic]

I find this video to be superb since not only does he clearly and articulately explain all of the modes in a concise and easy to understand manner, explores the alternative possibilities of the hidden triads within the modes, yet also gives progressions one can use to solo these modes, making the modes useful and applicable. Many teachers merely explain the modes, but don't give practical applications for them. Jake does this, making this tutorial of Harmonic Minor modes stand out above many other tutorials.

[XxSomeDooshxX]

"Last and DEFINITELY least" had me cracking up lmao