Phrygian Dominant / Spanish Guitar Scale

The Spanish scale (also called Phrygian dominant) is heard as a more exotic scale by "western" musicians and listeners, but it's a natural mode of the harmonic minor scale, and is a staple scale in flamenco music. As soon as you hear it, you get that distinctive flamenco flavour. It's also a large part of Arab and Jewish musical tradition. In modern times, rock and heavy metal have borrowed it for its tense, unstable sound.

Harmonically, this scale has universal qualities. You'll learn exactly what those qualities are, in your own way, as you experiment with the scale.

When playing the Spanish scale on guitar, like any other scale, you can play both "boxed" and wider patterns across the fretboard. We'll start with the basics and theory (important!) before moving on to expand across the guitar neck to free up our finger movements. Later, we can try out our ideas over some backing tracks.

Spanish scale basics & theory

As I mentioned in the intro, the Spanish scale is also known as Phrygian dominant. You may already know about the minor Phrygian mode.

Phrygian dominant is exactly the same as minor Phrygian, except for one tone - the 3rd. Whereas Phrygian has a minor 3rd (making it a minor scale), Phrygian dominant has a major 3rd (making it a major scale).

Let's compare the two on the fretboard using their "boxed" patterns:

Phrygian Minor (b3 = flat/minor 3rd)

Minor Phrygian scale

Phrygian Dominant (3 = major 3rd)

Spanish Scale (Phrygian Dominant)

This means that the Spanish scale (Phrygian dominant) will work over major chords (although not in every circumstance. More on this later).

If you're struggling with the fingering for that boxed pattern above, this diagram may help:
Spanish Scale Guitar Fingering

Using it over chords...

Musicians tend to see Phrygian dominant as having more harmonic tension than minor Phrygian, so the backing musician may replace instances of a minor chord with major, in order to emphasise the use of Phrygian dominant in place of its minor equivalent.

Let's listen to a couple of simple chord progressions to see how using major instead of minor makes the Spanish scale a more natural tension to use.

Am Em Am Hear example >

Am E Am Hear example >

The first progression used E minor before returning back to the A minor starting chord, so we'd typically use minor Phrygian over E minor.

The second progression used E major before the same return back to A minor, so we'd typically use major/dominant Phrygian over E major.

Now, I'm not saying we'd never want to use the first example, but it's generally considered that the use of E major and, therefore, dominant Phrygian with the major 3rd, as in the second example, has a more effective tension before resolving to A minor. It's less ambiguous and holds more harmonic weight than minor.

If in doubt, use your ears!

Of course, the Spanish scale doesn't have to be applied in the context of the example above. It's simply just another major scale that can be played over major chords. However, you must use your best judgement when deciding which major scale to play over which major chord. Don't just use it because it's an interesting new scale you've learned - think about context.

The Guitar Scale Mastery Course really helps you with this important aspect of learning scales.

The big Spanish scale picture

Just like in the other guitar scales lessons, let's expand that basic boxed pattern to include more fretboard space. This allows us to use lead techniques such as slides, hammer-ons/pull-offs, tapping, and wider fingering patterns.

The Spanish scale is great for runs, and being able to play 3 or more notes per string will really loosen up your fingers for more elaborate phrases/sequences.

First, let's expand the boxed pattern either side for more coverage.

That low E string root note marks the 1st note of the boxed pattern from earlier. The major 3rd and 5th tones have also been highlighted for reference as these, along with the root note, are considered "safe" resting points within your Spanish scale phrases. To begin with at least.

See, because the root, 3rd and 5th are the essential tones that make up a basic major triad, the other notes of the Spanish scale (in yellow) can be seen as "dressing", or passing tones, to give more flavour to that major sound. Dressing? Flavour? Admittingly, this is starting to read more like a cookery website, but hopefully you get my point!

By widening our pattern, we can now use techniques such as slides, wider hammer-ons/pull-offs or tapping etc. In other words, you're free to move around more intuitively and find those hooks without being physically restricted to that rather cramped boxed pattern.

Below are a couple of exercises that make use of the wider pattern. We're going to play in the same key as the diagram above. The root note tells us the key, and the root notes above are positioned on the note B:

Spanish Scale tab

Try also playing more than one string at a time from the scale to create lusher phrasings:

Spanish Scale Exercise

As you move up the fretboard, the fret spacings get narrower, which allows you to span much wider intervals per string. More on this kind of playing in a separate lesson!

Many guitarists find it most convenient to play scale phrases around chord shapes. This means that you play the scale around the same root note string as you would for the chord you're playing over.

For example, many chord shapes use the A string as the bass root note, so it's good to learn a basic pattern around that same root note position. It's effectively like superimposing the scale over the chord shape...

B7 chord

B Spanish Scale

Let's finally add that A string root pattern to the wider pattern from above:

Now we have something we can really work with! For example, if the backing chord was C# major, and you know your barre chord shapes, you'll know that we can form a C# major chord with an A string root note. Therefore, if you know the pattern above, you can simply start your solo by playing the scale around that same root/chord shape position, and work out from there into something more elaborate.

That's just one way to do it. Experiment.

Spanish scale backing tracks

I mentioned earlier that not every instance of a major chord will be appropriate for using the Spanish scale. There are certain chord progressions you will begin to hear as being naturally compatible with the Spanish scale.

Try the below track to start with. It's in the key of F# major, so you can use F# Spanish scale over this track. For reference, F# has a low E string root note at fret 2 and fret 14 (its octave), and an A string root note at fret 9. Using your knowledge from above, practise using both the boxed and unboxed scale patterns. Just get a feel for that distinctive flamenco sound that the Spanish scale compliments so naturally.

Click to download the F# major backing track >

Below is another backing track written for using Phrygian and the Spanish scale. It's in the key of E, so you can play the Spanish scale over the E chord when it starts. However, when the chords change, some notes in the scale may become incompatible. In this case, it's just the major 3rd that should be an avoid note on chords other than that starting E chord.

Here's an example of what you could play over the backing track, with the chord sequence mapped out:

Chord Sequence	E	F Am	E	Am G F	E
Compatible Scale	Spanish	Minor Phrygian	Spanish	Minor Phrygian	Spanish

So both Spanish and Minor Phrygian would be played in the key of E, as the chords are part of that same modal sequence in the key of E. It's just the major 3rd which causes the incompatibility with the other chords, because we've effectively replaced E minor with E major as the dominant chord in this sequence.

Since we're in the key of E, we'll need an E root note. Using your knowledge from the patterns earlier, you should be able to move it into the E position. For example the low E string root note would now be at fret 12 and open. The A string root note would be at fret 7 etc.

OK, ready? Only when you're ready...

Download the E Spanish Scale track here >

For more on how to use this and other scales in a fluid and musical way, across the entire fretboard, I highly recommend the Guitar Scale Mastery course.

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