Minor Keys and Scales

Lesson 2/66 | Study Time: 5 Min

Course: Improvising Lead Guitar

Minor Keys and Scales

Apart from major keys, the other basic tonality used in western music is a minor key. Minor keys are often said to have a sadder or darker sound than major keys. Songs in a minor key use notes taken from a minor scale. There are three types of minor scale – the natural minor scale, the harmonic minor scale and the melodic minor scale.

The Natural Minor Scale

The A natural minor contains exactly the same notes as the C major scale. The difference is that it starts and finishes on an A note instead of a C note. The A note then becomes the key note. To highlight the difference, the degrees of the scale as they would relate to the A major scale are written under the note names. Notice the flattened 3rd, 6th and 7th.

Here is the full fingering for the A natural minor scale in the open position, moving up to the high A at the 5th fret on the first string. Learn it from memory and then play it with your eyes closed, naming the notes out loud, and then naming the scale degrees out loud.

This melody is derived from the A natural minor scale. Learn it and then try making up your own melodies based on the ideas presented here. The natural minor scale is frequently used in lead guitar playing. You will learn more about it in the next lesson.

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Class Sessions

1- Minor Keys and Scales 2- Moving Between Forms 3- The Minor Pentatonic Scale 4- Scale Tone Chords 5- Modes 6- More About Scale Degrees 7- Learning the Guitar Fretboard 8- Using the Scale Forms 9- The Major Pentatonic Scale 10- Scale Degrees 11- Transposing 12- More About Major Scales 13- The Major Scale 14- Movable Minor Scales 15- Relative Major And Minor Pentatonics 16- The Blues Scale 17- Harmonic Minor Scale Fingerings 18- INTRODUCTION 19- Twelve Eight Time ( <span class="symbolA">+</span> ) 20- The F Major Scale 21- Digging Into the Blues 22- Major and Minor Pentatonic Fingerings 23- Analyzing What You Play 24- Enharmonic Notes 25- Sliding Pattern 2 26- Major Key Triad Pattern 27- C Minor Pentatonic in Five Forms 28- Modes and Scale Tone Chords 29- Notes on the Guitar Fretboard 30- Visualizing Scale Degrees 31- The Harmonic Minor Scale 32- Memorizing the Notes of the Scale 33- Five Forms of the Natural Minor 34- Five Forms of the Harmonic Minor 35- Tuning Your Guitar 36- Scale Tone Chords in All Keys 37- Modes in Minor Keys 38- Keys and Key Signatures 39- The Melodic Minor Scale 40- Relative Major and Minor 41- Jam Along Progressions 42- Five Forms of the Major Scale 43- Technique 44- Sequences 45- Notes in More than one Place 46- Licks Using the Minor Pentatonic 47- The Symbols 8va and Loco 48- Sliding Major Pentatonic Fingerings 49- Fretboard Diagrams 50- Common Progressions 51- Position Playing 52- The Key Cycle 53- Mode Formulas 54- Relative Keys 55- Major Keys 56- Major Pentatonic Sliding Pattern 1 57- Chord Symbols 58- Major Pentatonic Sliding Pattern 2 59- Tablature 60- Practical Fingerings for Modes 61- Higher and Lower Versions of Notes 62- Major Scales in All Keys 63- Tablature Symbols 64- Moving Between Scales 65- Music Notation 66- Note Values

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Minor Keys and Scales