you want: Egyptian Spanish Exotic sound your recipe: the harmonized major scale
you may also hear people talk about things like the “Phrygian Dominant” mode or scale – as if the regular modes weren’t weird enough to make sense out of – now this??? RELAX! keep in mind, modes were just invented so that you could sound elitist – what matters is how you play, not what you say. 
let’s demystify it:
a great musical example of the Phrygian Dominant Scale (Harmonic Minor Scale) is used as the basis of the guitar solo in YYZ by Rush — this instrumental was nominated for a Grammy in the early 80′s and is now a Guitar Hero video game song we’re going to check out the solo section for this lesson — Rhythm: B major and C chords – guitar plays an exotic scale oriented solo in B Phrygian dominant.
the big question you want to ask yourself is…why would Alex (the guitarist in Rush) play a B Phrygian Dominant Scale when the rhythm part is B and C?? the answer lies in the Harmonized Harmonic Minor Scale…
ok, that probably sounded complicated…let’s break it down…look at the lesson on the modes and the harmonized major scale to recall that, with the major scale, we just put a 2 (sometimes 3) part harmony on top of each note of the major scale. when you play those 3 or 4 notes for each scale step you get chords, those are the chords that form the Harmonized Major Scale…
so now, just take that same idea and apply it to the Harmonized Minor Scale…let’s do a couple… first, for reference, the C major scale = C, D, E, F, G, A, B
the relative minor scale in C major is A minor – also known as the A aeolian mode, or the A natural minor scale. A, B, C, D, E, F, G (same notes as the C major scale, just beginning with A instead of C) you can see in this video that the A harmonized natural minor scale is the same as the C harmonized major scale
to make the A Harmonic minor scale we raise the last note a 1/2 step (1 fret).
this would make it A, B, C, D, E, F, G, G#, watch this video to play the scale
now let’s make some harmonies for this Harmonic minor scale now:
5′s E F G# A B C D
3′s: C, D, E, F, G#, A, B
roots: A, B, C, D, E, F, G#
so this makes our chords in the A harmonized harmonic minor scale
1 minor — A, C, E
2 diminished – B, D, F
3 augmented – C, E, G#
4 minor – D, F, A
5 Major – E, G#, B
6 major – F, A, C
7 diminished – G#, B, D
notice the V and VI (in this case, the E and F chords): this kind of 1/2 step major to major chord motif in all kinds of spanish music…to replicate quickly and easily, play an E major chord, shift your fingers up one fret so that your fretted fingers are now playing notes from an F chord and some from the E (the open strings), and then go back to the E and resolve to A minor…you’ll be expecting a bull-fighter to pop out of nowhere. or maybe these guys.
also, just an FYI…if you had another harmony on top of the 1,3,5, you get…
1 minor Major 7 – A, C, E, G#
2 minor 7 b5 – B, D, F, A,
3 Major7 #5 - C, E, G#, B
4 minor 7 – D, F, A, C
5 Dominant 7th – E, G#, B, D
6 Major 7 – F, A, C, E
7 fully diminished-G#,B,D, F
NOW LET’S SEE HOW THIS APPLIES TO “YYZ” — just before the guitar solo there is a drum and bass trade off solo section in which the guitar plays B major and C major in an almost reggae fashion. then this sound (B maj -> C maj) is implied with the bass notes and the notes played in the guitar solo. it all revolves around the E harmonic minor scale: how?
take the E minor scale (same as G major)…you’ve got : E, F#, G, A, B, C, D, then we’ve got to raise the 7th to make it a harmonic minor scale: so now we’ve got E, F#, G, A, B, C, D#: and our chords will be E minor, F# dim, G aug, A minor, B maj, C maj, D#dim
since you’ve got these two major chords side by side, this should be a dead give away that you are right smack dab in the middle of an E harmonized harmonic minor scale…and that you can play notes from the E harmonic minor scale…or the B Phrygian Dominant [same notes].
