Scales
The minor scale on guitar: the same notes, a different root
SMART FRET Team ·
The minor scale is the second of the four scales. Anyone who has practised the major scale does not have to learn a single new shape for natural minor. It consists of the same seven notes, at the same frets, with the same fingerings.
What changes is only which note is the target, and which intervals those notes are in relation to that new root.
One interval tips over: the 3 becomes a ♭3
Natural minor is what is meant throughout here. It consists of the intervals 1, 2, ♭3, 4, 5, ♭6, ♭7. Against major, three degrees at once have tipped into their dark version: the 3, the 6 and the 7. The most important of them is the ♭3. It alone decides whether we perceive a feeling as major or minor. In A minor that gives you A, B, C, D, E, F, G.
| Degree | Interval | Note in A minor | Frets above the root |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | root | A | 0 |
| 2 | 2 | B | 2 |
| 3 | ♭3 | C | 3 |
| 4 | 4 | D | 5 |
| 5 | 5 | E | 7 |
| 6 | ♭6 | F | 8 |
| 7 | ♭7 | G | 10 |
| 8 | 1 (octave) | A | 12 |
Translated into frets, that gives you the sequence whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole, whole, or 2-1-2-2-1-2-2. The two half steps now sit between the second and third and between the fifth and sixth degrees, two degrees earlier than in major. The same two half steps, only moved, and out of that comes a completely different character.
From the side
Root note
Why these are the same notes as C major
A, B, C, D, E, F, G is the C major scale, only begun at A instead of at C. That is why A minor is called the relative key of C major, and why neither key carries a single accidental.
On the fretboard this can be counted rather than merely asserted. Position 1 of A minor and position 2 of C major sit in the same stretch of frets, the 5th to the 8th, and they are identical point for point.
And here is the same stretch of frets read as C major:
Not one note has moved. What has shifted are the red markings: in A minor the target is A, in C major it is C. And because every number in the picture counts from the root, every dot now carries a different one. The C was the ♭3 above and is the 1 here.
What makes minor dark
If the notes are the same, the difference can only lie in the root, exactly as in the party metaphor from the interval article. As A, you are now the host, and C is your ♭3 instead of your 3. The relationship between you and C is one fret tighter than the relationship between C and E in C major, a minor third instead of a major one. That one fret is what the ear hears as dark or bright.
| C major | A minor | |
|---|---|---|
| Root | C | A |
| Third | E, four frets (3) | C, three frets (♭3) |
| Fifth | G, seven frets (5) | E, seven frets (5) |
| Seventh degree | B, eleven frets (7, leading note) | G, ten frets (♭7) |
The second row is the difference between major and minor. The fourth is why minor ends more openly: in major the 7 is the leading note and audibly pulls to the root. In minor it is the ♭7, a whole tone below the root, and it no longer pulls. This is where harmonic minor comes in later on.
Audible in thirty seconds: play the position above upwards, once ending on the A, once on the C. Two keys, one shape, two completely different target intervals.
Position 2: frets 7 to 10, position 3: frets 9 to 12
The roots of position 2 sit on the D string at the seventh fret and the B string at the tenth, and five strings carry three notes here.
Position 3, the thinnest of the three, has its root on the A string at the twelfth fret and a second one on the B string at the tenth.
Moving into any key
The root of position 1 sits on the low E string, and that is where the position begins as well. That makes minor more comfortable than major for guitarists, because the frets of the low E string are already familiar from barre chords.
| Key | Root on the low E string | Position 1, frets |
|---|---|---|
| E minor | fret 0 (open string) or 12 | 0 to 3, or 12 to 15 |
| G minor | fret 3 | 3 to 6 |
| A minor | fret 5 | 5 to 8 |
| B minor | fret 7 | 7 to 10 |
| C minor | fret 8 | 8 to 11 |
| D minor | fret 10 | 10 to 13 |
The chords of a minor key
The same seven chords as in the relative key, because they are built from the same notes. Only their order, and with it their function, changes, because every triad is now formed relative to A rather than to C:
| Degree | Chord in A minor | Type |
|---|---|---|
| i | Am | minor (1-♭3-5) |
| ii° | B diminished | diminished |
| III | C | major (1-3-5) |
| iv | Dm | minor |
| v | Em | minor |
| VI | F | major |
| VII | G | major |
Two things about this matter in practice.
The fifth degree is a minor chord. In major it contains the leading note and pulls strongly back to the root. In natural minor it holds no leading note and therefore does not pull. An ending from Em to Am sounds soft, almost incidental, often exactly what rock and folk want, and usually not what classical harmony wants.
The third, sixth and seventh degrees are major. C, F and G in A minor, which happen to be the three chords most beginners start with anyway. The progression Am, F, C, G is four degrees of one key.
Harmonic and melodic minor, briefly
Both come out of the same practical problem: the ♭7 does not pull back to the root, because it lacks the leading-note pull.
Harmonic minor raises the ♭7 to a 7, so in A minor the G becomes a G♯. Now it sits a semitone below the root, it is a leading note, and the fifth degree turns into a major chord (E major instead of Em). The price: between the ♭6 and the new 7 there is now a gap of three frets, the oriental-sounding leap you recognise immediately.
Melodic minor additionally raises the ♭6 to a 6 and closes that gap again.
For the first few years this placing is enough. Both are tools for a specific purpose, not scales to be memorised as a precaution.
How to practise it
- The same position, two target notes. Position 1 up and down, once ending on the A, once on the C. Five runs alternating separate major from minor, with no metronome at all.
- Hunt for the ♭3 and play the scale so that you stop on it. It is the one note that makes minor minor.
- Over a backing. Two bars of Am, two bars of G, and only the notes from position 1 on top.
- Then tempo: quarter notes at 60 bpm, eighths, up in steps of 5 bpm.
What comes next
Delete two intervals from this scale, the 2 and the ♭6, and you get the minor pentatonic. What is left there is exactly what cannot rub: the chord itself plus two additional notes.
In short
- Natural minor is the intervals 1, 2, ♭3, 4, 5, ♭6, ♭7. In A minor that gives you A, B, C, D, E, F, G, exactly the same notes as C major.
- Minor sounds dark because of the ♭3: it sits three frets above the root instead of four. That one fret is the entire difference from major.
- Because the notes are the same as in the relative key, the shapes are the same too. Only the target note moves.
- The chords of a minor key are the same seven as in the relative key, in a different order: i, iv and v are minor, III, VI and VII are major, ii° is diminished.
- In natural minor the fifth degree is a minor chord. Harmonic minor raises the ♭7 to a 7 to get a leading note back.
- The major scale on guitar: the measure for everything else → The major scale built from intervals: why it is the measure for everything else, where the three positions sit, which chords come out of it.
- Intervals: the 12 feelings between two notes → Why an interval tells you more than a half step, how the bright and the dark version sound, and where all 12 sit inside one octave.
- The minor pentatonic on guitar: five positions across the whole neck → The minor pentatonic is the minor chord plus two notes. Why the 2 and the ♭6 are missing, where the five positions sit and how to practise.
More about this module: One fretboard for every instrument → Related tutorial: How do scales, chords and modes connect? →