Guitar Lesson -- The Natural Minor Scale
There are different types of minor scales
There are different types of minor scales. A natural minor scale is "natural" to a specific major scale and will have the same number of sharps or flats (or none) as that scale. In fact, a natural minor scale can be thought of as a major scale starting from a different note.
To understand this scale, let's look first at a major scale, in this case C:
C D E F G A B C
A natural minor scale starts from the 6th tone of any major scale. The 6th tone from C is A, so here is the A natural minor scale:
A B C D E F G A
Let's try another example using A major as the starting point:
A B C# D E F# G# A
The 6th tone of this scale is F# which is the starting point for the minor:
F# G# A B C# D E F#
Note that both the number and the letter names of the sharps remain the same.
You should take all of the major scales that you know and find all of the natural minors and memorize them.
As far as the guitar is concerned, all that you have to do is look at your major scale forms:
Here's one of the G major forms. The major roots (G) are (M), and the beginning of the natural minor (E - 6th tone) is (m):
E---------2-------(M)-----------5-------------------------
B------------------3-----------(m)------------------------
G---------2--------------4------5-------------------------
D--------(m)------------4-----(M)-------------------------
A---------2--------3------------5-------------------------
E---------2-------(M)-----------5-------------------------
Note again that we're talking about the same scale here. The only "technical" difference is the starting point of that scale.
To hear how this sounds, record several measures of a G chord, or have someone play it for you, and play the G major scale over it. After that do the same with an Em chord, and start the G scale from the E. This will give you a feel of the difference between the major and the minor.
Next, record a long series of 4 beats of a G chord followed by 4 beats of an Em chord. When playing back, simply play the G major scale starting from ANY of the notes in the scale. This will give you an even better feel of the difference and will also help to open up your mind to the possibilities - which are endless. You will learn as you do this more and more which combinations of notes work better than others. Just know that you don't really have to start from the root note all of the time.
Do the same thing in other major-minor combinations (C - Am, D - Bm, A - F#m, E - C#m etc).
There are a lot of different things that you will eventually learn to use when playing lead guitar. Playing scales is just one of those things.
by: James Emery Vigh
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