How to Add Country Tones to Your Blues Guitar Using “Memphis 6ths”
If you’ve explored much rock-n-roll or Blues music on the guitar, then you probably already know that the minor-pentatonic scale has long been the go-to pattern for all sorts of wildly popular music.
You probably learned early on that using that simple scale can help you fake people out into thinking you’re this amazing artist, when you’re really only playing five notes in different ways.
You may have also noticed that many of the really famous musical artists seem to be using that minor-pentatonic scale, but are also doing “something else” that you often can’t quite put your finger on.
There’s a term for that: “Playing Outside”
Put simply, it means using the minor-pentatonic scale as the basis of your riffs and licks, but occasionally incorporating other elements from either the major-scale, minor-scale or other related modes or extensions.
If that part’s losing you, don’t let it, because we’re only going to be talking about one “outside element” in this article. Which, if you remember the title, is to incorporate what’s known as the “Memphis Scale” or “Memphis Sixths” into your playing.
There’s a lot of sciency nonsense involved in the concept — which we’ll dive into here in a minute — but in its most basic terms, it’s when you see a musician playing two notes on two different strings while not playing the string between them. Like playing on the E and G string at the same time — or the B and D string.
You can do it on all the strings, but the higher strings are the most common. We’ll be talking about those in this example, and by the time we’re through, you’ll be able to incorporate the technique anywhere you want to use it; in any scale, mode and chord progression.
Important Note: The “M” key on y coputer is going out. I try to catch it when it happens, but if you see the occasional weirdly isspelled word — that’s what’s going on. Please feel free to let e know if I iss any.
So let’s get started!
Since most players try to just learn a few simple things to fake people into thinking they’re better players than they are, we’re going to use the standard A7-D7-E7 Blues chord progression, with which just about every player is already somewhat familiar.
The best part is that the more you learn about what it is you’re actually doing, the easier it becomes to fake people out about how good you are.
So let’s begin with why the A7 chord is based on the Mixolydian scale. You know the A7 chord is made of the notes A,C#,E,G
You may remember the formula to create a scale from a root note, but in case you don’t, then here’s a refresher: W,W,H,W,W,W,H
Starting from the root note, “A”, the other notes in the scale can be found by applying the following intervals; whole-note, whole-note, half-note, whole-note, whole-note, whole-note, half note.
Or, as many people like to think of it: W,W,H,W,W,W,H
Which gives you these notes to make the scale: A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#, A
But since an A7 chord doesn’t have a “G#” note in it, but a “G” note, we’re just going to slide that G# note back a semitone (half-note).
Allow me to demonstrate with a visual representation of all this crazy goodness.
It’s just that simple. And, like most every hobby, of course there’s a specialized name for everything. Performing this process turns your normal, run-of-the-mill “Major” scale into what’s called the “Mixolydian” scale.
Technically it’s the Mixolydian mode of the D-Major scale. But I’m not going to get into all the various debates about scales and modes here, or this article would run about 200 pages, and the comment section would be on fire from people arguing about it. The war could last years and cost millions of lives.
We both have other things we could be doing, so we’re going to stipulate that and just get on to the Memphis Sixths we’re so excited about.
Now that we know how the scale is built, let’s map it out on only two strings. For our first adventure, let’s do it on the B and D strings.
You can probably already see where this is going. We’ve mapped out the A-Mixolydian scale horizontally along both strings, then I’ve added those cool little red lines to show you the notes that we’re going to connect together to make our sweet, sweet country sounds.
You can play both notes simultaneously, or alternate between them. You can slide into them, bend to them or whatever creative madness you can get up to with it.
The “trick” is to ignore the string between them. You can mute it with one of your fingers and just play all three strings, you can pick one string and pluck the other, or you can just pick over the top of it without touching it. It’s really up to you how you want to do it.
Now let’s look at the E and G strings.
Just like before, we started with the “A” note on each string and mapped out the Mixolydian scale horizontally. Remembering that the Mixolydian scale is the same as the major scale, but has a “G” and no “G#”.
Science!
That’s great. But how do we use it?
I’m so glad I asked! Let’s take a look
When the A7 chord is usually playing in your tasty Blues jam, you’re probably already used to mindlessly noodling around the A-minor pentatonic scale.
Let’s get a quick peek to refresh our memories:
If that fills you with shock and awe, then it’s probably because you haven’t gotten to the full scale yet.
What if we zoom in just a little. See if this makes more sense to you:
If the first picture is horrifying, but the second one makes sense, that just means it’s time to start expanding your pentatonic scale outward a little more. It’s just the same five notes, but the pattern appears staggered because of the various locations of the notes.
But it’s just the same five notes, over and over again.
And that’s where the beauty of the “Memphis Scale” comes in!
You may have noticed that there are seven distinct notes in the Memphis Scale, but only five in the minor-pentatonic. That’s the beauty of this method.
When you’re playing the A-minor pentatonic scale over an A7-D7-E7 Blues chord progression it has a real nice bluesy sound to it. But when you add in the “Memphis Sixths,” what you’re really doing is incorporating the various chord extensions that are neglected when only using the minor pentatonic.
Let’s take another look:
The extra notes also have functions over the chord being played. In this case, we’re talking about the A7 chord, so like that “B” note would be what’s called the “ninth”, that F# is the “sixth” and the C# is the major third — while in the minor pentatonic there’s only a natural “C” note, so this gives it some extra spice when you have both.
I guess this is as good a time as any to point out why it’s called Memphis Sixths. And that’s only because the two-note pairs that we’re playing on the alternate strings are six scale-tones apart from each other.
Here’s the scale again, so you can see for yourself:
You can see that if you pick the root note “A” and count to six notes, you’ll land on the F# note. If you start at B you’ll end on the G note, and so one.
Those are the same pairs we lined up to find our “Memphis Scale” pattern.
So what you do is, maybe slide into a couple of the Memphis scale pairs, and then since the minor pentatonic scale lies pretty much directly on top of it, you can just casually segue into that pattern.
It adds a lot of color to your playing, and you’ll really be faking those n00bs out about how great you are now!
“Well, why can’t I just play the whole A-Mixolydian scale over the chord progression?”
Well, now you’re thinking creatively, and you absolutely can. But that’s not what this article is about. It’s about the “Memphis Sixths”. But props for expanding your mind.
Am I talking to myself? No, you’re fine.
Let’s start wrapping this up
At this point you may be wondering what to do when the A7 chord changed to the D7 chord — because chord progressions progress, don’t they.
Well, you do the same thing. You figure up the D-Mixolydian scale, mentally envision it across two alternate strings, and then superimpose the whole thing over the A-minor pentatonic scale. Or better yet, over the D-minor pentatonic scale.
Sounds simple, right?
Believe it or not, there are many players who can do that; all in their mind, all in real-time, even while they’re playing.
You and me? Maybe not so much.
We may have to map out the notes and relationships before we start playing, just to get the lay of the musical terrain, so to speak.
Let’s just map out the D-Mixolydian pattern for giggles.
You may notice it’s the exact same pattern as the A-mixolydian scale, but just with different root notes. Well, isn’t that great.
Once you’ve got the basic idea down, it’s pretty much a breeze to transpose the concept to the different chords, or even other keys.
You’ll quickly notice the E-Mixolydian scale also follows the same pattern, just moved up a couple frets. That also makes for fun turnarounds, because you can change the scales quickly but still be in the same spot.
The more you learn about what you’re doing, the easier it becomes to fake people into thinking you know what you’re doing. And this technique is great for that. It’ll put you miles ahead of those other n00bs.
Forget faking people out, they’re going to think you’re magic.
Thank you for coming to my Shred Talk™.
All fretboard maps were made using the editor at Guitarscientist dot com.
