Originally Posted by: bbzswa777So why is it that these harmonic minor licks sound better over major chords? I figured the key word MINOR meant they would go with minor chords.
It sounds like you are creating a neat contrast as you shift from a major sound to a minor sound. This is called a parallel key. It's a way of creating a quick, dramatic shift in sound.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_key
However, in a more general sense, every scale has both major & minor chords in it's possible harmonic configurations.
If you build a triad on every note of a scale, using only notes from that scale, you will get a variety of major & minor chords; often a diminished in there & in harmonic minor an augmented.
www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=495
Try this experiment! Play a chord built on the fifth degree of the harmonic minor scale, which happens to be a major chord. It's an especially dramatic chord because it's the dominant chord (the V in the harmony of that scale, the chord of strongest sense of resolution). It's also called fifth mode of harmonic minor, the Phrygian dominant mode.
Start on a G major chord, but play C harmonic minor starting on G
|--3------------------------------------------|
|--3------------------------------------------|
|--4--------------------------4-5-------------|
|--5------------------3-5-6-------------------|
|--5--------2-3-5-6---------------------------|
|--3---3-4------------------------------------|
Neat sounds!
