The pack that drills the saying itself. You start with a single note and learn to make it speak — then two, then a cell, then a whole sentence. And we do it in the most exotic, spicy voice on the guitar: E Phrygian Dominant, the flamenco/Middle-Eastern sound, where a ♭2 leans against a major 3rd and every phrase drips with drama.
One scale, whole pack. E F G♯ A B C D — it's E Mixolydian with a flattened 2nd (F) and flattened 6th (C). The magic is the gap between the ♭2 (F) and the major 3rd (G♯): a three-fret leap called an augmented 2nd, and that leap is the entire flamenco / Spanish / Middle-Eastern sound. Over an E dominant drone, this is pure spice.
Two notes carry all the exotic weight: the ♭2 (F) — sitting one fret above the root, desperate to fall back to it — and the ♭6 (C), the same tension a fifth up. Everything in this pack is about making those two notes speak. Want it even spicier later? Raise the ♭7 (D) to a natural 7 (D♯) and you get the Double Harmonic / Byzantine scale — two augmented 2nds, twice the exotic. But master the ♭2 first.
The whole skill starts here. One note, looped over the E drone, made to say as much as possible. Most players race to more notes because they can't yet make one note mean anything. Fix that first and everything downstream improves. We use the ♭2 (F) — the most expressive single note there is.
e|--13~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| F (♭2) over the E drone — one note, held
Loop the drone and play only this note for two full minutes. Every time round, make it say something different using the devices below. When one note can sound angry, then pleading, then resigned — you're playing music, not guitar.
Hit it hard for anger, softly for sorrow. The pick is a voice.
Slide or bend up into the F from below — arrive at the note, don't just fret it.
Wide and slow = confident. Fast and narrow = nervous. Choose the emotion.
Hold it long, or stab it and leave silence. The silence after is part of the note.
Add one note and you have a relationship — and relationship is where meaning lives. The ♭2 falling to the root (F→E) is the oldest, most dramatic gesture in music: the sigh, the resolution, the flamenco cadence. Two notes, a complete emotional statement.
e|--13~~~~~~~-12~~~~~~~| F (hang, ache) → E (release, home)TARGET · milk the F before you let it fall · the longer you wait, the sweeter the resolution
B|--13~~~~~~~-12~~~~~~~| C (ache) → B (release)TARGET · same gesture as 2a, different register · learn to hear both as "the sigh"
Three notes that are the sound: root, ♭2, major 3rd. The leap from F to G♯ is the augmented 2nd — three frets, a gap bigger than a normal scale step — and that jump is instantly, unmistakably exotic. This tiny cell is the DNA of the whole scale.
e|--12--13--16--17--| E F G♯ A └jump┘ ← the augmented 2nd (3 frets) = the exotic sound
Play it up and down. Feel the gap between F and G♯ — your finger has to leap. That leap is why it sounds like somewhere far away. Now use it as a motif (Pack 01): state it, then develop it.
TARGET · loop the cell until the leap feels natural · this three-note shape is your exotic hookNow assemble it: a complete musical statement using everything — the exotic notes, the sigh, the cell, and the Pack 01 principles (question & answer, tension & release, contour). Here's the most famous exotic phrase in music, and then a full sentence built from it.
e|--17--16--13--12--| A G♯ F E └ the ♭2 → R is the drama; the whole line falls homeTARGET · play it slowly, with weight on the F · this one phrase says "exotic" instantly
QUESTION (climbs, hangs on ♭2) ANSWER (sighs home) e|--17--16--13~~~~~~~~~~~|--13--12----------------| B|----------------------------|----------13--12--17------| A G♯ F (hang) F E C B E ← question, unresolved ← ♭2→R sigh, then ♭6→5, land home
Read the design: the question climbs and stops on the ♭2 — maximum tension, left hanging (§03, §05 from Pack 01). The answer resolves that ♭2 down to the root, then adds the ♭6→5 sigh for a second wave of exotic ache, and lands home on E. One sentence, and it says something unmistakably.
TARGET · play Q, leave a real silence, then A · the pause between is where the listener leans in · record itDo it in order, and don't rush up the ladder. Loop an E drone (or E7 vamp). Spend a full session on one note before you allow yourself two. Then two, then the cell, then the sentence. The temptation is to jump to the flashy Andalusian descent — resist it. The player who can make one ♭2 speak will play a more moving descent than the player who only knows the shape. Build from the bottom.
You need a constant E under everything so the exotic notes have something to lean against — the ♭2 only aches if the root is sounding. Use a looper, a held low open E, or a drone track. This is exactly what the Session 03 drone engine was built for. The tension notes are meaningless without the drone; with it, they're devastating.
Vocal and singing — Suhr S with the Landaus, Broadcast at noon + Butter Machine so single notes sustain and bloom. Dig in for the attack, roll back for the pleading tone. The Drybel Vibe on slow adds an exotic swirl, and the BigSky on a big hall lets the ♭2 hang forever. This scale is made for expressive, sustained, bend-heavy playing — it's the honk work from earlier turned exotic and mournful.
Pack 02 is Pack 01's principles applied to one note at a time, in the most expressive scale on the neck. Combine them: take the seed-motif idea from Pack 01 and build it from this exotic cell. Then drop it over the Ten Chords to Vibe On — Em7 and Am7 are the perfect beds for E Phrygian Dominant lines. Chords to drift on, a spicy voice to speak with, and the craft to say something. That's the whole series doing its job.