Share This Thread That "Santana" sound Alexander Alasjö (406) Instructional Forum 11/19/2003 8:58:18 AM · 204 Views [Respond to this Message] I've been frantic trying to figure out what scales Santana is using to get his special "sound", and the song "Smooth" in particular. The song goes in Am, F, E mainly, and the pentatonic minor isn't right, neither is the gypsy scale or "spanish eight". Could someone tell me which scale he uses? Thanx //Alex

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• Respond to this Re: That "Santana" sound 11/19/2003 10:25:35 AM Mike Stramba (269) wrote: All kinds of tab for it, have you looked at any of them. Mike

• Respond to this Re: That "Santana" sound 11/19/2003 11:10:55 AM Alexander Alasjö (406) wrote: Yep, but I'd still like to know the name of the scale. It would help a lot. Alex

• Respond to this Re: That "Santana" sound 11/19/2003 11:31:08 AM Randy Evans (6446) wrote: When I played it..It was just a A minor scale. Its the way he uses the notes in the scale, which gives it a lot of tension. All the guitar lines are straight forward. There are some killer strum passages and intervals, plus some cool lines on bass and keys which pump up the jam, but its pretty much in the pocket. Plus it is Carlos..Thats nuff said right there!!

• Respond to this Re: That "Santana" sound 11/19/2003 1:07:45 PM Mike Stramba (269) wrote: Ok, sorry, I thought that you were just trying to figure out the song. But now that I look at your home page, you probably already know it, and just want to know what you've been playing . Now that I listened to the song, and played some the tab, as others have said it just looks like the A minor (a.k.a. C Major Scale), with emphasis primarly on the A and C notes throughout his playing. Mike

• Respond to this Re: That "Santana" sound 11/19/2003 1:48:12 PM Alexander Alasjö (406) wrote: Yeah, that could be it, but as far as I know he adds a lot of tones to the A minor scale. I think Malcolm Howley has a point in his post. Thanx anyway.

• Respond to this Re: That "Santana" sound 11/19/2003 12:27:47 PM Mikkel Pedersen (3592) wrote: After a quick listen I think that he plays the A minor scale and leaves out the E#. I'm not certain though.

• Respond to this Re: That "Santana" sound 11/19/2003 1:44:52 PM Alexander Alasjö (406) wrote: You mean he leaves out the F? ;)

• Respond to this Re: That "Santana" sound 11/19/2003 2:44:45 PM Mikkel Pedersen (3592) wrote: Well, I actually meant E#, as it makes sense (to me) in the minor scale natation. But the difference is a fish. It's just notation...

• Respond to this Re: That "Santana" sound 11/20/2003 9:59:07 AM Jon Riley (9692) wrote: There's no E# in any A minor scale I know (however you notate it). Do you mean G#? or F#? The note E# occurs in the keys of F# major, F# minor and C# major/A# minor - that's about it.

• Respond to this Re: That "Santana" sound 11/20/2003 12:35:25 PM Mikkel Pedersen (3592) wrote: Last time i checked the A natural minor scale looked something like this: A B C D E F G ...well, it didn't because for some reason B in danish is an H. I might have checked "wrong", but I'm fairly certain.

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