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Hi everyone, I'm Greg Eleftheriou and welcome to another 'Metal Songwriter' video.
In this video we' re going to talk about the interval of a minor second, in other words the 'halfstep'.
It's pretty easy and pretty simple to play a halfstep on the guitar.
Let's say that I have one note here.
The halfstep is placed on the next fret.
So, the essence of this video is to use the minor second intervals over a chord progression to make that sound more intense,
instead of placing a lead (a melody), we can place this interval.
We 're not going to play this halfstep horizontally, I mean, like this:
But I want it to sound more like an arpeggio, so I'll place one of these two notes on another string.
I mean, instead of playing this:
I'm gonna take that note and move it on the higher string.
It would sound like this. That's the way that we'll use the halfsteps.
Allright, in a natural minor scale we have two halfsteps.
And I would like to make a disclaimer here. We 're talking mainly of natural minor scale, because many (and maybe most of) metal songs are composed in natural minor scale.
So, that's why we 're talking about it.
The natural minor scale has two halfsteps, let's see for example D minor.
1, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6, b7, 8.
As you could see, I have two halfsteps.
This is the one.
And this is the other one.
So I have two half steps. The first one is between the 2nd and the minor 3rd, and the other one between the 5th and the minor 6th.
So, in the first example I'm going to use the halfstep between the 2nd and the minor 3rd in an arpeggiated way.
I will be in D minor. So let's hear 'Example #1'.
So, in the firs example I used (as I told you before) the halfstep between the 2nd and the minor 3rd.
But I used it an octave higher.
I mean, the normal halfstep would be this one.
But I moved all this voicing an octave higher.
Allright. Now, in the second example, I'm gonna use the halfstep between the 5th and the minor 6th,
with the clean tone.
I'm going to be in A minor, so I'm going to use the notes E and F.
Again in an arpeggiated way, but with a clean tone.
Let's hear 'Example #2'.
So, in 'Example #2' I used E and F notes.
I was in this pattern.
This is the root note. This is the fifth.
The minor 6th is on the next fret, but as I told you before, I'm gonna move that note in here.
So, I'm gonna play the halfstep like this.
Allright? And that's what I did in 'Example #2'.
Now, another way that we can use those halfsteps, those minor second intervals, is to combine them along with a riff,
the same thing that we did with the octaves on the previous video.
So, I'm gonna have a riff and I'll play some minor second intervals, in different octaves.
Let's hear 'Example #3' and then I'm gonna play it slower for you and explain everything I did.
In this example I was in E natural minor scale.
Let's play that riff slower, and I'll show you all the minor seconds.
This is the first one. Between the second and the minor third, because my root note is here.
The second note, the minor third, which I moved on here.
This is the other one. Between the fifth and the minor sixth.
Root note, this is the fifth, the minor sixth here, I moved it here.
That's the other minor second, ok?
That's the other one. Which is between the second and the minor third but an octave higher.
Ok? So, I'm gonna play the whole riff slower for you.
In the end I used the halfstep between the fifth and the minor sixth,
and the halfstep between the second and the minor third.
That's all about the minor seconds, or the halfsteps.
It's pretty good, instead of playing a lead or creating a melody, you can use those halfsteps.
It's pretty cool and I've done that, the introduction of 'Metal Songwriter' has that thing.
It's being used a lot by many bands and I suggest you should use that.
That's all about this video, you can always find the tabs, the sheets and the diagrams on the description area.
Please feel free to share it, comment. I'm always open to your feedback about new ideas or all the ideas that already exist.
Thank you very much for watching this video, and I hope you find it useful. See you on the next videos.