Natural Minor Scales

In the previous lessons, we had learnt the major scales of the guitar fretboard. This guitar lesson will focus on the next type of scales that you should learn: the minor scale. Music in minor keys gives a very different feel from those in major keys and tends to sound more solemn, sad, dark and ominous.

There are basically three common types of minor scales used in music: natural minor, melodic minor, and harmonic minor. In this lesson we would only focus on the natural minor first and will cover both melodic and harmonic minor scales in later lessons.

Similar to the major scale, the minor scale can be constructed using a set of interval patterns. This is the main reason why minor scales sound different from major scales.

To get the natural minor scale, we use the intervals: WHWWHWW (W = Whole tone and H = Half/Semi-tone). Notice this set of intervals is different from that of the major scales?

Let us take the A minor scale for our example in this guitar lesson. By applying the interval formula, we get :

I	II	III	IV	V	VI	VII	I
A	B	C	D	E	F	G	A

A natural Minor Scales Linear

Have you noticed that the A natural minor scale contains exactly the same notes as that of the C major scale? A minor is also known as the relative minor of the C major scale. In a nutshell, A minor and C major share the same key signature (that’s how they are related) and hence are made up of the same notes.

Important Note : A relative minor scale is always 3 semitones lower that its relative major.

To give an example, we will use G major. If we go 3 semitones lower from the G note, we would get E. Thus, E minor is the relative minor of G major.

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Minor Scale Exercise

In this exercise, I want you to hear for yourself the difference between the C major scale and C minor scale. You might need to refer to the previous lesson on major scales for this exercise.

C minor scale exercise diagram