So what makes a minor scale sound minor? That's what we're going to talk about in
this video and don't worry you don't have to be a music theory geek to understand this.
I'm going to explain it in simple layman terms. I'm going to show you a formula
that if you follow it every time you're going to get a minor scale and then we're going
to apply it to the guitar and I'll show you how this all works on the guitar fretboard.
Let's do this.
The minor scale is just a series of notes that follows these rules. There's eight notes.
It's going to end on the same note that it starts on. In this case
A and ends on A and there's only going to be one of each note name. So as I mentioned
the A minor scale starts on A and ends on A conveniently. The notes are A B C D E F G and A
of course the musical alphabet only goes up to G so we start over. So I want to mention just
briefly that we can number the notes. In other words we can call the first note in the scale
one, the second note two, the third note three and so on. We call those scale degrees and the
only reason that will come up is when we want to talk about a scale more in general generic
terms. What I mean by that is we can call the first note in the scale number one. It's the
first degree so it could be any scale. If it's a D scale the first note would be D, if it's an E
scale it'd be E but it separates the actual letter name from the number at the position of that node.
What's more important for the discussion today is what we call the space between the notes or
more formally called intervals. We can use intervals to create a kind of a formula.
In other words if you use the exact same distance between each of the notes and you
follow that it becomes a formula for a scale in this case the minor scale so here's the intervals
for the A minor scale starting on A and going to B, we have one whole step. A whole step by
the way in guitar terms is two frets on a string. From B to C, we need a half step that's one fret,
from C to D a whole step, from D to E another whole step. Now from D to F, we've got another
half step. Remember the rules of B and C and E and F this I've talked about in previous videos. It
means that between the notes B and C and the notes E and F they're naturally falls one half step.
You can really see it on the piano. There's no black key between those notes. All the other notes
are whole steps in other words G to A even though you're starting over is a whole step and so on.
Okay back to the notes E to F with that half step F to G is the whole step and G to A as I just
mentioned is another whole step and we're starting over again. So we can say the formula for a minor
scale is - follow me whole, half, half, whole, half, whole, whole of course I'm talking about
steps. In this case we started on the A note followed the formula and got an A minor scale.
Let's test this out. Let's try it with another note. We're going to start with a B note this time
and follow that same pattern. Now I'm going to have to write in something. You'll see
what I mean in a minute. We're going to start with the B to C. Now remember B to C
falls in that rule and it's always a half step but we need a whole step remember for the formula.
So we're going to make that B sharp and that raises it up a half step, makes it one whole step
then from C sharp to D, we need a half step. Well it is a half that now from C sharp to D is a half.
If it was just C natural it wouldn't be. It'd be a whole step but C sharp to D is a half step.
Next we're going from D to E, we need the whole step. We got it.
E to F another whole step. E to F is normally a half step. Again,
the rule E to the F half step so we're going to make that. You guessed it F sharp.
Next from F sharp now to G is going to be a half step. Yup we're in line. G to a whole step
and then finally A to B is another whole step and we've got it, a B minor scale. B C sharp D E
F sharp G A and then B that was whole step, half step, whole, whole, half step, whole, whole.
Let me show you what that looks like on the guitar.
So to start off remember that on the guitar one half step equals one fret on the guitar
and one whole step is two frets so let's do that A minor scale.
We'll start with the open A note.
Now we're going to go up two half steps, that's one whole step to the next note. I'm not even
worried about the note names because I want to just talk about the intervals,
the distance between the notes so that's a whole step. Now we need a half step one fret,
another whole step, another whole step, half step,
whole step and whole step. Now we ended back up on A A A one octave apart just means eight notes.
So listen to that one more time. It sounds like A minor scale.
It's important to use your ears and hear the notes when you practice the scale. Listen to the sound
and you're actually hearing the distance between notes. This is what makes a minor scale sound
minor. It's that distance between the notes in that pattern. In other words when you play
notes with those distances between each of the notes it sounds to our ears like a minor scale.
Now let's take that to the B scale so we'll start off with the B note.
Whole step from there, half step, whole step, another whole step, half step, whole step
and one more whole step. We should end up back on B. B, yes one octave apart that was B. Now I play
these on one string so you can actually visually see the distance between the notes. Normally I
wouldn't play them that way. An A minor scale an open position would look something like this —
That was one octave instead of going up the entire string one string and the B
would sound I usually do a movable pattern. What that means is no open strings B, C sharp
that was the same as when we started on B and went all the way up the string. With a movable scale,
iIt means I can play that same pattern all up and down the neck and just by playing the pattern and
have a different minor scale. So for example I got B starting here, if I go to C and start there
I get a C minor scale. Let's go two more frets to D, D minor.
Thanks for joining me today. If you have any questions please put them in the comment section
below. If you haven't already watched it, watch my video on the major scale you'll find when you
compare the minor and major scales. The whole thing makes a little more sense. Check it out.