Five Melodic Scale patterns
Steve Rieck: Earlier on we looked at the five minor scale patterns around the fretboard and before you get started with this harmonic minor scale podcast, you definitely want to make sure you are familiar with those five patterns from the earlier podcast. Anyway the A minor scale we learned before is called the natural minor scale, it is basically a C Major scale from A to A and from C to C. So it had all natural notes. In this case we are going to be moving the seventh note of the minor scale up a half step.
Now we did that to a natural minor scale becomes what's called a harmonic minor scale. So it will be a scale that you might kind of associate with the sound those Beethoven or some classical music. It has a real dramatic kind of sound but anyway if I took the basic first pattern A, B,C, D, E, F, G, A. it is that lesson we did that in the first octave the A, B,C, D, E, F, G, A. To create the harmonic minor scale you need to move the G up a half step, that's the seventh note A, B,C, D, E, F, G#, A and then continuing into the second octave B,C, D, E, F, G#, A.
So now let's look at that in terms of the fret numbers on the sixth string on fifth fret, on the fifth string two, three, five, fourth string, two, three, six then the third string two, four, five second string three, five, first string one, four, five. So again A, B,C, D, E, F, G#, A, B,C, D, E, F, G#, A. So that would be the A Harmonic Minor scale.
Now before we get to the other patterns I want to point out when you think of the basic one, four, five progression in the key of E Minor as a natural minor scale that would be A Minor to D Minor to E Minor. And this is harmonic minor scale because it has G# in it. what that would mean is that that E Chord becomes E Major. So you have the basic chords in the key of A harmonic minor. It would be A Minor to D Minor to E Major, or even E7 and back to A Minor.
So anyway let's look at the second pattern starting at the fifth fret of the sixth string with the first finger. I am just going to play through it, slowly and then talk about the fret. A, B, C, D, E, F, G#, A, B,C, D, E, F, G#, A. So it's the fifth seventh and eighth fret on the sixth string, fifth seventh and eighth fret on the fifth string, sixth, seventh and ninth fret on the fourth string and then fifth and seventh fret on the third strings. Fifth sixth and ninth fret on second string to the fifth fret on the first string or you could play the seventh and eight fret ahead of that too.
So again, so for some of those stretches where we have the--in this case the B out here on the ninth fret where the G# on the ninth fret on this string, you might actually play those back here as well. Some people prefer to play those at the fourth fret on the third and first string respectively that would look like this A, B,C, D, E, F, G#, A, B,C, D, E, F, G#, A. So I just moved those over the fourth fret on the other strings.
So let that be the third pattern now. I am going to start with that A that we had before, move up to the seventh position and now on B,C, D, E, F, G#, A, B,C, D, E, F, G#, A, B, C, D. So that's the fifth seventh eighth and tenth fret on the sixth string and then the seventh, eighth and 11th fret on the fifth string. Seventh, ninth and tenth fret on the fourth string, seven to ninth fret tenth fret on to the third string to the ninth fret and tenth fret on the second string and then seven and ten on the first string. So we got B,C, D, E, F, G#, A, B,C, D, E, F, G#, A, B,C, D.
So that's what we will call the third pattern for the A harmonic minor scale. Then into the fourth pattern this one starts at the A, at the twelfth fret of the fifth string with the fourth finger. So we are going to go A, B,C, D, E, F, G#, A, B,C, D, E. So that's the 12th fret on the fifth string. Nine, ten, 12 on the fourth string, nine to ten on the third string, nine to ten on the second string to 12, second strings and then eight, ten, 12 on the first strings. So we got A, B, C, D, E, F, G#, A, B, C, D, E.
If you were to move backwards from this note, see the lower notes beneath it you get A, G#, F, E, D, C. So that's 12th, 11th and eighth fret of the fifth string to the 12th, tenth and eighth fret on the sixth string beneath that, that root there. And the last one, the fifth pattern starting with the first finger, now at the 12th fret of the fifth string, we are going to do A, B,C, D, E, F, G#, A, B,C, D, E, F, G#, A.
So that's the 12th, 14th and 15th fret of the fifth string, 12th, 14th, 15th on the fourth string. 13th, 14th on the third string and then 12th, 13th, 15th on the second string, 12th, 13th, 16th to 17th on the first string there. Again if you wanted to take that look at the notes below and so A is at the 12th fret of the string, G# at the 16th fret of the sixth string and for the 13th fret of sixth string and E down at the 12th fret of the sixth string. So those are the five harmonic minor scale patterns and the key of A.
Brian Kahanek: Hi, this is the Brian Kahanek and this rhythm part to Gemini. So this is the intro lead to Gemin. Slow--use these two fingers I am going to play at the E Major triad there.
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