Ab Hungarian Minor Scale

What is the Ab Hungarian Minor Scale?

The Hungarian minor scale is essentially a harmonic minor with a raised 4th degree (#4), creating two augmented 2nd intervals that give it an intensely dramatic, Eastern European character. It's closely tied to Roma and Hungarian folk music traditions and works beautifully for adding an exotic, fiery quality to minor-key passages. Here's how the Ab Hungarian Minor Scale lays out on the fretboard. This scale is enharmonically equivalent to G# Hungarian Minor.

Notes and Positions

Minor with raised 4th and 7th; strong Eastern color. On bass, the fretboard view helps you visualize where the important tones sit for building lines across positions. Use a finger-per-fret approach first, then add shifts only when the line needs a wider range. In the key of Ab, the notes are: Ab, Bb, Cb, D, Eb, Fb, G.

How to Use It

You'll often hear it in Gypsy Jazz, Metal, and Classical. A good way to internalize the sound is to sing the root, then sing a few scale degrees before you play them.

Start with the root on beat 1, add the 5th on beat 3, then work the other scale tones in as passing notes. Use the interactive fretboard above to spot repeats of the same note on different strings and frets.