E Harmonic Minor — Chicago Tuning Banjo

E Harmonic Minor is 7 notes to the octave (common family), drawn here across the Chicago Tuning Banjo's DGBE strings with every E marked, so home stays visible from anywhere in the pattern.

Dark and dramatic. The raised 7th pulls hard toward the tonic, and the wide step from the b6 up to it gives the scale an exotic, almost Middle-Eastern tension.

Heard in: Classical minor-key harmony, neoclassical metal (Yngwie Malmsteen), flamenco-tinged rock, klezmer, and Balkan melodies.

Because these four strings are the guitar's top four, patterns a guitarist already owns land here unchanged. The work is rhythmic rather than geographical: making the pick articulate every note the head refuses to sustain.

Run it against a click at a tempo where every note gets the same weight. On a banjo an uneven scale is audible immediately — the instrument gives you no sustain to hide behind.