"g Minor Scale" Options

[fatb0t]

Hey Andrew,

Quick question, I was watching one of Kris's alternative picking videos and he says he's using the "G minor scale". Kris doesn't show you what the notes are in the scale in a tab form, he just plays them a few times which makes it kinda confusing. So I want to find a G minor scale reference chart so I learn and memorize this scale..he's my question:

What exactly is the G Minor Scale? Aren't the Aeolin and Phrygian modes a minor scale? How about the harmonic and melodic minor?

I own a very comprehensive scale book with very exotic scales and there is no "minor" scale in there so to speak - they all have different names, please point me in the right direction.

[Andrew Cockburn]

HI there!

Ok, there are many minor scales, generally, any scale with a flattened 3rd in it is called minor. This covers as you say, Aeolian, Phrygian, Harmonic Minor, Melodic Minor ...... there are very many more.

But 9 times out of 10, if someone talks about THE minor scale, they mean natural minor, which is Aeolian mode, and is usually one of the first few scales you learn when playing guitar.

[nickmarx12345678]

yeah I almost always think of a minor scale as the scale with
Root 2nd flat3rd 4th 5th flat6th flat7th octave
so if you were trying to get the notes you could use the major scale formula 2212221(semitones) and then flatten those 3

[kjutte]

Sometimes ignorance also causes "Gmin" stating.

Gmin can be dorian, phrygian etc as Andrew said.