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How to Create Sweet-Sounding Twin Leads

with the Major Hexatonic Scale
Posted 01/13/2016 at 2:44pm | by Andy Aledort

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A signature element in many great, enduring

rock songs is the use of harmonized singlenote lead guitar lines.

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Examples include Thin Lizzys The Boys Are

Back in Town, Reelin in the Years by Steely
Dan, the Eagles Hotel California and the
Allman Brothers Bands Blue Sky, Whipping
Post, Ramblin Man, Hot Lanta, Revival
and many others.
Dickey Betts, composer of so many of these
classic ABB tunes, has made harmonized
single-note leads a part of his own signature
sound, and for a great many of these

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harmonized lines, he has relied on the major

hexatonic scale, also known as hexatonic
major.
In fact, many players refer to the scale as the
Dickey Betts scale because his music is so

closely associated with it. In this lesson, I will show you how to create sweet harmony leads with this
scale, in the style of Betts.
One of Dickeys most well-known and immediately recognizable usages of major hexatonic
harmony leads is the intro riff to Blue Sky. FIGURE 1 offers a part played along these lines,
arranged for one guitar, wherein the lower note represents the melody and the higher note
represents the harmony, which stays diatonic to (within the scale structure of) E major hexatonic (E
F# G# A B C#).
The best way to learn the major hexatonic scale is to first analyze the more commonly used fivenote major pentatonic scale, upon which it is based. FIGURE 2 illustrates E major pentatonic (E F#
G# B C#), as played in seventh position. The intervallic structure of this scale is one (the root),
major second, major third, perfect fifth and major sixth.
To get major hexatonic, simply add the perfect fourth to this structure, which will result in an
intervallic spelling of one (the root), major second, major third, perfect fourth, perfect fifth and
major sixth, as illustrated in the key of E in FIGURE 3.
By simply adding the fourth to this scale, now the triadic chord tones of E major (E G# B) and A
major (A C# E) are present, making this scale perfectly suited for soloing over a repeating I-IV
(one-four) chord progression in the key of E (E to A), as is the case with Blue Sky.
Whereas the type of interval remains consistent when diatonically harmonizing a seven-note scale,
such as E major, for example, harmonized in thirds, fourths, fifths, etc., when harmonizing the sixnote major hexatonic scale, the intervallic relationship will switch from thirds to fourths at certain
points due to the wider gaps between some of the notes.
FIGURE 4 illustrates E major hexatonic played up and down the high E string, and FIGURE 5
illustrates the same scale played entirely on the B string, starting from B, the fifth. If we play both
strings together, the result is shown in FIGURE 6: the first two harmonies are fourths, followed by
four thirds, major or minor, then everything repeats an octave higher, when you get to the 12th
fret.
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16 hours 45 min ago

FIGURE 7 offers an example of how these major hexatonic harmonies might be used in a Blue
Skyinspired melody. Once you have the basic idea, try inventing some two-note harmonized lead

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January 13, 2016 at 5:15pm

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