The Kumoi Scale...

I've been incorporating the Kumoi scale into a lot of my songs. I've been starting to think it is essemtial to laying down your own metal riffs.

Heres a tab for the kumoi in A minor:

---------------------------5-7-8-7-5--------
-----------------------5-6------------------
----------------2-4-5-----------------------
------------2-3-----------------------------
-----0-2-3----------------------------------
-0-1----------------------------------------

Then I discovered that this crazy tap I made up for a solo:

-12-8-5-12-7-5-13-8-5-13-7-5--------------
--------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------

Fits in perfectly with the kumoi scale in A minor.
So I thought and came up with more ideas. I came with a sleek rythym riff in C#m: (tab on bottom three strings)
P.M. pattern: x x x o o x x o
--------7-6--------------------
-7-6-4----------6--------------
------------4-5----------------

Does anyone else have any licks to unleash with the kumoi scale?

Dude I just did some research and it turns out that the 'kumoi' scale is actually just the minor 6th pentatonic (a pentatonic made from the melodic minor scale. John Coltrane uses it a lot) and actually goes like this:

------------------------------
------------------------------
------------------------------
----------------5-------------
---------7--9-----------------
-5--7-8-----------------------

Amin 'Kumoi' scale (or Am6 pentatonic)

The scale you have been using is just an aeolian (or natural minor scale) without the 7th degree.

The scale you have, regardless of the name somebody at some point gave it, is nothing more than a trimmed down group of notes out of C Major/A Minor. You have E F A B C. Can you see how that comes from C D E F G A B C? That's also why is "fits" over Am so well. It'll probably fit over any chord in the Key of C Major.

There are a HUGE amount of of scales you can discover when you start trimming down scales with many notes into many new scales with less notes.

These smaller scales increase tonal focus...so they are basically a Mode...but in the true sense. But the names are just names, it's the tones that make "the sound" happen.

I've have few lessons dealing with at my lesson site: http://lessons.mikedodge.com. I created them because TOO MANY guitarist think they need MORE NOTES to play, but in reality it's the small groups of notes within the larger scales that actually give you MUSIC instead of NOTES.

Learning all those notes to memorize is great, and it's crucial to beable to "play guitar". But these smaller scales it where "the music" lies.

This is basically the "less is more theory". Read through the Lydian Applications tutorial at my site, it'll show ways of breaking up those Diatonic scales into a TON of small,, actually more usable scales. This is the ticket to the "everything I play sounds like I'm running up and down scales" the "scaley syndrome" I call it.

Further into the Lydian tute it'll show you how it relates to ALL the Diatonic scales. It's also a way that player like Vai, Johnson, and Satch sound like they are riffing through Pnetatonics, but they don't sound like the Pentaotnics you know. You know what I mean?

Then read through the Dominant Pentatonic tutorial. That will show you that with a few common notes out of MANY Dominant type scales you can "simulate" ANY of those bigger scales, BUT you can nail the crap out of a true "dominant sound".

Once you've read that one, take a look at the Indian Sliding Technique video tutorial as it will show you a killer way to approach the Dominant Pentatonic scale in a way similar to John Mclaughlin, Shakti, Jan Hammer, etc...Plus you'll get a new technique to see too!

Don't worry too much about "names", all you've done is found a few "magic notes" within the common scales you've probably been playing for years. Stop by those tutorials and I can show you ways of crafting many more of these "magic notes" out of the common scales.

I'm partial to the Hirajoshi scale myself. :) The Kumoi is cool though.

Dude, I'm not stupid or anything. I could see that this scale was just a trimmed minor scale. They call it kumoi because it is used commonly in japanese music and was incorporated into metal. They just left the name...

Just wanted show you some licks I made in the scale....