Minor Scales Beginning on E and A Strings
Why Practice Minor Scales?
The benefits gained from pacticing scales to the muscles in your hands and forearms are enormous. Practicing scales will give you better control over the strings which results in faster chording and better right-hand left-hand coordination. Practice, Practice, Practice!!!!
How to Practice Minor Scales
Learn this scale forward and backward. Practice it with your metronome set at its slowest speed if necessary. Tap your foot with the beat and play each note once for each beat. Begin picking down and pluck the next note on your upward motion. Do not waste any motion. Up, Down, Up, Down, Up, Down, even when you have to move to the next string. No Wasted Motion! Go up the scale from tonic to octace then descend down the scale to tonic again. You'll use this scale countless times over your career as a musician.
There are 3 variations of the Minor scale: Pure, Harmonic and Melodic.
Pure Minor Scale
The Pure minor scale is closely associated with the Blues scale; in fact, the 5 notes of the blues scale are derived directly from the Pure minor [1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 (8 is the octave, which is the same as tone as 1)].
Note the patterns are identical. Play this pattern starting on any note on the E or A string (see neck above) and you are playing that note’s Minor Scale. Practice this scale till your fingers hurt. You will use this scale over and over again.
Harmonic Minor Scale
The Harmonic minor is the same as the Pure minor except that the 7th note of the scale is raised one half step. It is this seemingly slight difference that gives the scale an entirely different character. The sound, or character of the Harmonic minor may be described as Middle Eastern. If you've ever heard the song Kashmir by Led Zeppelin, you've heard the Melodic minor scale used.
Note the patterns are identical. Play this pattern starting on any note on the E or A string (see neck above) and you are playing that note’s Minor Scale.
Melodic Minor Scale
The Melodic minor is Harmonic while ascending and Pure while descending.
Note the patterns are identical. Play this pattern starting on any note on the E or A string (see neck above) and you are playing that note’s Minor Scale.
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