[Ben Toast]

I stumbled across something while in drop B tuning today. I'm not sure what mode it is, and I really want to find out so I can study more scales within that mode. I'd assume you can do this in any drop tuning to find the mode. Here's a quick tab:

Db| 6--8--10
Ab| 7--8--10
E| 5--7--8
B| 5--7--8
Gb| 5--6--8
B| 5--7--8

Big thanks to whoever can help me figure out what mode this is.

Here's a video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmcK_NxEnHc

[gtrdave]

Sounds/looks like G harmonic minor scale to me.

[Ben Toast]

Thank you so much! I was at a loss for how to figure out what it was.

[metropolis4]

It's actually E Harmonic Minor if I'm reading your tab correctly.

The first octave of the scale you're skipping the A, and playing a D natural (ala E minor - E, F#, G, B, C, D, E). In the second octave, you're playing straight E Harmonic Minor (E, F#, G, A, B, C, D#, E). And then you're playing the first five notes of the third octave of E minor (E, F#, G, A, B).

Harmonic Minor is the same as Aeolian mode, but with a raised 7th (in this case the D# leading into the root of E)

You could also play this same scale in standard tuning like this:

E----------------------------------------------------------3--5--7
B-----------------------------------------------4--5--7-----------
G------------------------------------2--4--5----------------------
D-------------------------2--4--5---------------------------------
A--------------2--3--5---------------------------------------------
E---0--2--3--------------------------------------------------------

[Ben Toast]

Still a harmonic minor, though. The main thing was figuring out the mode. I've got a guitar grimoire (book of scales) and so I can study more scales in the same mode. But thanks for the little detail you pointed out too of notes I was skipping.