Melodic Minor Scales. What They Are And How To Use Them.

Melodic minor scales are another important scale used in many musical styles -- and if you're serious about learning and mastering guitar it's recommended that you at least have a basic understanding of it. Many would suggest that you memorize it all over the guitar fretboard in all keys!

Now, that's a very tall order! I would suggest that it all depends upon what your guitar playing goals are, your preferred style of music along with your passion and commitment.

In my own personal experience I also feel strongly that if you are interested in learning the melodic minor scale for improvising guitar solos, by all means spend some time learning it. Use whatever sticks.

At the end of the day it's mostly about the chord tones. As I've discussed in a few other free guitar lessons online the scales were "invented" after the music was created :-) They are similar to the rules of grammar in language.

What are the Melodic Minor Scales?

It's usually taught in conservatory style teachings that there are 3 types of minor scales in western music. The natural minor scale, the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale. These days in guitar courses at modern music institutions such as GIT etc., the guitar modes are also taught. There are a couple of other minor scale variations within the "modes".

The harmonic minor scale has an augmented 2nd between the 6th and 7th degrees of the scale -- the early composers didn't like this sound. They thought it sounded too much like "gypsy" music. A very cool effect that I personally love to use, btw :-)

They preferred their melodies to move smoothly. This is how the concept of the melodic minor scale came about -- although it's doubtful that these composers thought of it in terms of a scale. They more than likely thought about connecting chord tones in as pleasing a way as possible. OK. Let's play!

The melodic minor scale as I learned it on the piano when I was a kid was kinda "weird" -- because the ascending version was different than the descending version. As compared to the major scale it had only the 3rd flattened ascending, but had the 3rd, 6th and 7th degrees lowered on the descent.

Later, when I majored in guitar at Humber Jazz in Toronto, we were taught it with only the flattened 3rd on both the ascending and descending version. It was also called the "Jazz Minor" scale. That's what I'm going to show you here, because you can use it in your own music.

The "conservatory" version is simply the natural minor -- or aeolian mode -- on the way back down. Better to just learn the natural minor scale and how to use it.

The scale diagram above is only one form of the melodic minor scale, of course. If you are at this advanced guitar lesson, I'm assuming you're pretty serious about learning guitar. As a basic prerequisite you should know the names of the notes on your guitar fretboard. Click here to learn guitar fretboard if you have gaps in this area of your guitar playing knowledge.

If you're good to go, great! You should be able to find the scale forms on your own. C'mon, it'll be good for you! Whatever you do to figure out on your own will stick!

Uses of the Melodic Minor Scale

• Create melodies with it over the tonic minor chord. ie. play A "jazz minor" over an A minor chord in the key of A minor. Remember the jazz minor is with the flattened 3rd only -- it's one of the "modes" of the melodic minor. Some call this the "real" melodic minor.
• Play it over "altered dominant" chords. That's where you hear that kind of "outside" sound. Mostly in jazz or fusion, but rock players such as Steve Vai and blues players like Robben Ford use it.
• This altered dominant scale is found by starting your melodic minor/jazz minor scale on the 7th degree. This creates a scale that has all the altered tones in it. It's beyond the scope of this guitar lesson, but I'll show you a bit in the guitar video lesson at the bottom of the page to help get you started :-)
• Another great use of melodic minor is on dominant 7b5 chords. This chord is built on the 4th scale degree of the scale -- in the guitar lesson video I use an A7b5 chord. I learned it as "lydian b7", but I've also heard it called "lydian dominant."
• See the chord diagrams below for the types of chords used in the guitar lesson video.

Final Notes

• Memorize one or more forms of the melodic minor scales.
• Highly recommended: draw them out on blank fretboard sheets. They are a PDF file, so you'll need Adobe Reader (the latest version is recommended) installed on your computer in order to open it. You can get Adobe Reader here (a new window will open so you can download it without leaving this page).

  If you want to open the file in your browser window, just click on the link. However, if you want to download the file to view later, then right-click on the link and choose "Save Target As" or "Save File As." Then select where you want to save the file on your hard drive.

  Once you have saved the file, locate where you saved it, and double click to open.

  In order to print, open the downloaded file, and select the print option from the menu.

• Find a partner to jam with! Or create jam tracks of your own. Be creative and explore the sounds of the scale. Get the sound of it in your ear.
• As an aid to the guitar video, I've created some free downloadable guitar scale charts. These are based on the same fretboard shapes I use in the video. Get your free downloadable guitar scale charts here.
• Watch the guitar lessons video below for a few more tips, and have fun!

Congratulations in applying yourself to learning the melodic minor scales on your guitar! Thanks for tuning in and tuning up!

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