The Melodic Minor is an interesting one, with loads of use in Jazz.
View the full lesson at The Melodic Minor | JustinGuitar
1 Like
OK melodic minor going up, natural minor going down…
I guess the accompanying chords (is this even diatonic anymore…) depend on movement in the melody then?
1 Like
Taking time out to catch up on some PMT today and resumed where I left off, at the Natural minor scale. Getting to this lesson I have had to rewind the ascending scale several times, as it did not seem to match the suggested fingering diagram.
What I was not seeing, was Justin fretting the 4th fret of the e string and then noticed he was actually playing the G# on the B string 9th fret. So only the A and B on the e string.
This does actually make sense, given the Melodic UP Natural DOWN, as your hands are positioned nicely to lead into descending the Natural Minor when starting with the Root on the e with the index finger.
Horses for course I guess and both fingerings work. But just thought I would point it out, in case anyone else gets confused between the lesson diagrams and what Justin is actually playing.
1 Like
last night and it prompted me to revisit Justin’s lessons on minor keys this morning. Whilst doing so I noted that Justin mentions the melodic minor is the minor key often used in jazz but applying some other knowledge I don’t think that’s strictly always true as the harmonic minor has a place in jazz too because of the jazz phenomenon of the 5th chord in a key being dominant. Eg using e minor as the relative minor of g major (both used in autumn leaves of course) … the b minor chord ie the 5 chord in the key of e minor becomes a dom7 chord. We therefore have to raise the minor 3rd in that chord ie the note d to d#. You would because of this use the harmonic minor to solo over the bars in the minor part of the standard ie f half diminished, b7 and e minor. Some food for thought I guess!! 
1 Like
actually, I miss the ♭3 in the diagram, is there a reason why?
OK, at second view (and thanks John for mentioning the fingering) this is a fingering diagram and not the note diagram. Music theory does not only require good ears, but very good eyes 
Another good reason why both intervallic diagrams and fingering diagrams should be included in topics like this. As taught to me by @stitch over a decade ago, once you understand and memorise the relative position of the intervals to each other on the fretboard (and remember the B string shift) eg 5th always 1 string above root, 4th always 1 string below, 3rd 1 string down 1 fret back (I could go on) you can find any scale pattern for any Key or Mode and all the chords and chord tones in those Keys.
The fingering is good for learning the scale but who plays up and down a scale in music ? So in real terms your fingering will change depending on the phrase you are playing and what you played before and what comes after. The positional relationship of the intervals will never change. Understand this and it will open a whole new world.
#yellowboxes
3 Likes
2 Likes
THX Toby, I’ll dig in an and say Rick (@stitch) thank you from my side for his hint 
1 Like