The diatonic minor scale is very similar to the pentatonic scale that you’re probably familiar with by now. The only difference is that you’re adding the two notes the pentatonic scale leaves out. In the A minor example in the video, these two notes – the ‘color’ notes – are B and F. In the scale pattern, that’s the II and the VI notes.
If you’re not familiar with what I’m talking about with the II and VI, you might want to checkout my guitar lesson on I, IV and V. It’s quite a fundamental one in my opinion, and really helps open up the guitar.
But onward and upward! Today we’re talking about the diatonic minor scale. Please add this one to your practice routine – its a very important scale – more so than the major scale, as the guitar favors the minor. Piano teachers (and most guitar teachers) always start you off with the major scales (most commonly C major), but that’s because piano is geared for that. Guitar isn’t. Guitar is an extremely minor-friendly instrument.
Besides, A minor is the first scale that was ever invented. Not C major.
How do I know that?
Simple. When you start counting your marbles, do you start at 3? Nope, you start at 1.
So, the first scale was simple – A, B, C, D, E, F, G.
NOT C, D, E, F, G, A, B – that just wouldn’t make sense, would it?
Anyways, there’s your guitar scales trivia for the day – let’s get on with the lesson!
Watch the the lesson on Youtube
Comments or Questions? Leave one at the bottom of the page! And make sure you practice your diatonic minor scale lots today!
these scales are great it is takin some time to get use to but this one seems easier,some what hard for my pinkie/Jonathan can you show me the I believe its the pantonic scale up by thenut of in E
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Hi Dean, please checkout the lesson on the pentatonic scale here:
http://www.guitartipsweekly.com/21/learning-the-pentatonic-scale/
I think this lesson was done in A, but all you have to do is move the exact same pattern down to the open position. IE, you no longer play with your index finger as all those notes become open notes.
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Two questions Jonathan:
1. What song/chord progressions is it applicable to ? eg. Rock, Fusion,Country,1,4,5, Major/Minor chords?
2. Are there other positions, eg. 1st pos.,2nd pos. etc. ?
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Hi Tom – this scale is applicable to every style of music you can imagine. This is a standard minor scale – occasionally you find scales that are more common in certain types of music – ie the pentatonic scale is often called the blues scale – but many indigenous wind instruments are also tuned to the pentatonic scale.
So in short – you can use this scale in any type of music. The difference would be in how you play it – ie your licks and riffs etc.
You can play it over major or minor chords, as long as you’re in the right key.
I’m not sure exactly what you mean by other positions – this scale is repeated all over the neck, as is the pentatonic, and every other scale.
You can also move it around, depending on the key you want – ie start the exact same pattern on the 3rd fret and you have G minor instead of the Am example given above.
Hope that helps a little. I’m in the process of working on a full length lesson on scales and how they relate to each other, which will answer a ton of these questions.
Cheers!
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this is a coolest site i like listening to explain the theory i know the neck from the open E to the 12 fret and my block diagrams and i’m self taught but checking out the lessons you have on here explains the why’s that i didn’t know and book don’t have it jonathan hey keep it up. its the coolest to open the email and see the next lesson
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Thanks Doug! That’s why I’m here
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Tom’s question about positions could also make reference to starting with the third–i.e., the c.
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Thanks Justin – that’s a good point. Yes, you can play the diatonic minor in different positions – we’d call those modes.
So if you started it on the C as Justin suggested, you’d be starting in the third mode.
One of the most common of these is instead of starting at the 6th string, 5th fret, start it at the 5th string, 12th fret (also an A). I call this the pentatonic minor from root 5, although if you extended it downwards onto the 6th string, you’d end up with the same scale starting on an E, which is the 5th, therefore the 5th mode.
I go into this in more detail at http://www.GuitarScalePatterns.com, and there’s a free cheat sheet you can opt in to receive there which shows the differences between these scales, and where to find them on the fretboard.
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hi jonathan,i purchased your guitar scale patterns ,could you please tell me how i get the cheat sheet you use on this video,cant seem to find it anywhere.
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Hi Geoffrey, you need to login to the member’s area:
http://www.guitarscalepatterns.com/members/
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great lesson looking forward to more on scales and how they connect
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thanks jonathan , i will be buying 145 shortly,great work keep it up
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you rock man I love getting good e-mail. I’ve played for years “self tot” why is this a minor scale,all the notes are,whole no sharps or flats,i.e whats the dif between major and minor scales?????
yer lessons rock,cheers bry
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Hey Bryan – sounds like you might like to checkout my Guitar Scale Patterns lesson (http://www.GuitarScalePatterns.com) – it really digs into this. Briefly though, the minor scale and the major scale use the same notes, they just start in different places. They are very closely related to each other.
‘A minor’ has no sharps or flats because it is the relative minor of the key of C, and C is the only scale that has no sharps or flats. There’s nothing special about it though, it follows all the same rules the other scales do. Hope that helps.
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You have given me a lot to work with. The lessons have been great.
I have both unlocking I IV V and the Scale patterns and go back to
them often. Is there a difference in a blues scale vs. a jazz scale?
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Diatonic is a mode u need to memorize this if u know u’r scale.
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Thanks for taking it nice and slowly, give some chance for it to sink into this old bit of grey matter. I was wondering the word, diatonic, from Greek or Latin whatever, as in poly, or mono, often the word translation gives a clue as to what the guts of the thing means. Have to try to get you some donation for this great service.
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Very frustrating-the audio and the licks “freeze up” every few secs,making it very tough to follow-probably my comp,don’t know-any suggestions?
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Jonathan Reply:
December 6th, 2010 at 7:09 pm
Hi Ron, yeah, it most likely is your computer, or internet connection. I’d suggest rebooting for starters, and then allow the video to buffer fully before watching it (you can see the light red line growing as it buffers). To do this, just hit play once, and then after it starts, hit pause for a bit.
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Darrell Reply:
December 13th, 2010 at 3:58 am
definitely sounds machine oriented, not software oriented. couple of suggestions. how much RAM mem do U run. how long has it been since U deleted all temp files on machine. (will really slow down) run %temp% and prefetch separately and U will be amazed how many temp files R clogging the machine. hope this helps.
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Nick108 aka Nandalal108 Reply:
January 21st, 2012 at 6:23 am
I get that with You Tube so much so annoying, amazed this thing hasn’t copped a sledge hammer some days, until as I often do if I don’t know something, just go to the web, and type the question, see what comes up. On this issue, the little white circular thing comes on and crunch it stops, the advice was, hit play, then pause, wait till the red line has moved a fair way across, then release the pause, I find this works, but how do you get it to fix it up if you want to play a list of stuff of where ever? The pause button method works.
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Jonathan Reply:
January 23rd, 2012 at 8:13 am
If you want to do that with multiple videos, I’d recommend opening the ones you want to watch in separate tabs on your browser…
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U can also include or exclude the B on the fourth fret G string No???
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Jonathan Reply:
December 22nd, 2010 at 2:04 pm
Yeah – the exact placement of that B is optional.
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When using the A-minor diatonic scale, what chords can you use for the rhythm guitar parts? Thanks.
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Jonathan Reply:
January 13th, 2011 at 3:41 pm
Hi William – anything from the key of A minor or C major… for instance C major is: C F G Am Dm and Em.
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Arindam Reply:
June 29th, 2011 at 4:00 am
Hi Jonathan,
Why are you suggesting for playing anything from the key of C major also? Is it because Am is the 6th note of Cmajor? And for playing rhythm, for a diatonic scale, is there any fixed rule to choose the chords? As you have mentioned here C F G Am Dm etc.?
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Jonathan Reply:
June 29th, 2011 at 7:52 am
Try writing out both the Am scale and the C major scale. You’ll find they share all the same notes, just start in different places, and that is because they are relative to each other… so for soloing, yes, you can use them interchangeably. Checkout my Unlocking I IV V course for more info: http://www.onefourfive.com There’s lots in there on choosing the chords too…
how am i able to print off this diagram?
Tx doc
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Jonathan Reply:
February 9th, 2011 at 9:39 am
You can save it to your computer as an image… right click on it and save target as…
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I learned these scales many years ago and the best thing they did for me was to open my eyes and realize that it’s not as hard as it looks. Thanks Jon and keep up the good work. -K-
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GREAT LESSON THE REASON BEING YOU ALWAYS GO THROUGH THESE SCALES VERY SLOWLY,ENABLING THE STUDENT TO SEE WHAT YOU ARE DOING,AND PLUS YOU HAVE THE DIAGRAM ON THE SCREEN VERY GOOD. TO BAD I CANT SAY THAT ABOUT COLIN DANIELS OF RIFFNINGA,THIS DUDE TEACHES THESE SCALES IN A LIGHTENING FAST MANNER WHICH MAKES HIM A VERY POOR INSTRUCTOR,AFTER THE LESSON IM SEARCHING OTHER GUITAR SITES MAKING SURE THAT I GOT THIS SCALE PATTERN DOWN THE RIGHT WAY
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arent these major scale?
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what is the diffrence
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Over time I have come to enjoy your weekly emailings more and more. I find your “mistakes” comforting and real, and lets me be less than perfiect at times and still enjoy my playing. Glad you can let your guard down and be real. Having said this, I look for some advice in my direction of play. This lesson was important as I’m acoustic yet loving the blues sound. I have also just purchased an acoustic bass and am headed in that direction as well. Two names that may not be considered “blues” artice, Waylon Jennings and Carl Perkins are two that speak to me musically. So, I guess it is a country blues I’m looking for and wish to persue with a gosple/spritual overlay. Weird? Maybe, but that’s the direction I’m led. So some advice on the bass and someone’s teachings reguarding same and please note your emailing reguarding guitar buying was a help as well. I plan to continue with both, my bass and acoustic guitar. I am a 62 year old chiropractor and this has become my outlet in my limited spare time. Thanks.
“ODD”
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Jonathan Reply:
April 27th, 2011 at 11:01 am
Hi Dan, yeah, I make plenty of mistakes… in my view if you’re not making mistakes then you’re stuck in a rut and not progressing
The better you get, the mistakes just get less noticeable…
I’ve actually got a course for the bass, which you can find here: http://www.bassguitartheory.com I think you’ll pick up a lot from it.
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Its a great outlet, second best to spiritual life for me, but it is spiritual life as well. Sound is awesome, and watching human hands and fingers do it all always grabbed me, especially those super fast bits, like watching Jimmy Page, or Carlos Santana, or Frank Zappa, or anyone like that when the nirvana samadhi of guitar takes over and all those lessons melt away and then they just go off inside and take us mere mortals on some kind of astral musical travel. Oh yeah and blues, Rory Gallagher, never forget this concert at Dallas Brooks Hall in Melbourne and no one turned up, well three other people. I thought he would cancel, but no, comes out with the battered but loved well and truly strat, plugs straight in, with no pedals, just a bit of amplified crunch and let it rip, with this awesome band, real hot spiritual blues. Everything rolls on at a hectic pace, but music is always there, like a well. Always has lots of fresh water. But in the beginning, its practise, practise, practise.
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Hi Jonathan, What I would like to have have is a little better explanation about playing thirds, I was confused by the comment you made in reference to major thirds and minor thirds in what ever key you are playing. It’s a great sound, i just need a little more info. Thanks—Dave
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Jonathan Reply:
July 4th, 2011 at 8:52 am
Hi Dave, Have a look in the Licks & Riffs section in the navigation menu on the right of this site – you’ll find a few different lessons that talk about thirds specifically in there.
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G-Day Jonathan, over 18 months later & I’m back here AGAIN revising & learning.
THANKS so much for leaving this up & providing such High Value tutoring.
ALSO I gain so much as I read through your Replies.
The patient & courteous way you explain & direct people to other FREE lessons to cover their inquiries.
You are a Good person Jonathan& I thank you.
Regards,
Rick.
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Jonathon do you play any metal music. I’m an old guy and I need to learn what in metal as far as modes I need to learn. I know that doesn’t make sense I at work and trying to type this real fast. Thanks
David
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Jonathan Reply:
December 7th, 2011 at 10:41 am
Hi David, I don’t play much metal, but the scales you need to learn are the same as for anything else. I know of several famous metal players that play the blues to keep their chops up. I’d start with the pentatonic and diatonic major and minors; that will bring you quite far. See GuitarScalePatterns.com for more on that.
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Hello Jonathan, I was wondering if you have lessons for the other 4 modes of the scale, usually I like learning all modes but I can find the rest of the modes for the pattern you used.
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Jonathan Reply:
January 19th, 2012 at 8:38 am
Hi Mark – I’d recommend checking out my Guitar Scale Patterns lesson… it digs into things like that.
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As per usual with age and the velocity of emails received lately, I will have to put this in my ‘read later’ file and really get into studying it one night when I’m not so busy. If such a day exists. Hah, but I do eventually get through all of them, thanks jon and hope you enjoy my page Nandalal108 on You Tube. ROCK FOR RADHARANI, and beleive me, does she like to rock her socks off.
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