The Minor Scale
From my previous article I have explained to you about the Major scale and gave you some exercises to do. So I hope you’ve actually done it and learned from it. If you still need help with that just feel free to post your comment below.
Now assuming that you have gotten the hang of it let’s proceed to the Minor scale. We simply derive it from the Major Scale by lowering by a half step the 3rd, 6th, and the 7th degree notes. I also advised you in the previous topic to take note of the 6th degree note in the C Major Scale which was A. The reason behind this is that in music theory, the 6th degree of a Major Scale is the root note for its Relative Minor. So in our previous topic the A Minor Scale (A being the root note) is the relative minor of the C Major scale.
C D E F G A B C D E F G Note that the notes here still belong to the C Major scale (or in the key of C Major) but this time we start at 'A' and treat it as the root note to turn it into the A minor scale
By observing the interval between the notes A B C D E F G we then derive the interval formula w-h-w-w-h-w. From the previous article we have established that a whole step is two frets on the guitar and a half step is one fret. On the fret board it looks like this:
Learn these two patterns first and afterwards also figure out the other five for the key of A Minor on your guitar (do the same for the key of C major).
Tip: get a paper and pencil and write down into a guitar tab or fret board diagram all the notes you figure out to be belonging into this Scale. Don't rely on your memory for now, you can do this easily later on once you got your 'idiot board' down.
Once you nail these patterns (or even just one pattern), you can apply it to all of the other 11 keys (from A# to G#). Same goes for the Major Scale (see previous post) and all the other scales/modes (more on this in the future).
Learn these two patterns first and afterwards also figure out the other five for the key of A Minor on your guitar (do the same for the key of C major).
Tip: get a paper and pencil and write down into a guitar tab or fret board diagram all the notes you figure out to be belonging into this Scale. Don't rely on your memory for now, you can do this easily later on once you got your 'idiot board' down.
Once you nail these patterns (or even just one pattern), you can apply it to all of the other 11 keys (from A# to G#). Same goes for the Major Scale (see previous post) and all the other scales/modes (more on this in the future).
Another thing to point out here is that in order for you to truly appreciate scales, you need to play it over a chord of the same name (e.g. A minor scale over an A minor chord). You can do this easily if you have a digital sampler or a recorder. Asking a friend who is also learning guitar is a great idea too and your learning process would be so much more fun that doing it on your own. So just play it over and over on your guitar and listen to it as you do. This will train your ears to be able to easily recognise scales by just hearing it and it will be a great tool when transcribing guitar solos. Good luck and have fun!
