Exoric Scale - Melodic Minor
Andrew Cockburn
Nov 5 2007, 12:26 AM
Moderation Policy Director
Posts: 10.459
Joined: 6-February 07
From: CT, USA
Exotic Scales - Melodic Minor


The Melodic minor scale was an attempt to "fix" the problem caused by the large 3 step interval in the harmonic minor without sacrificing the leading tone (for more details on this see my lesson on Minor Scales Revisited). The resulting scale is a harmonic minor with a sharpened 6th (meaning it reverts back to a major 6th). This means we end up with what is basically a major scale but with a flattened 3rd. Since the 3rd is the truly important indicator of major vs minor, this works out reasonably well in practice, and is better suited to melody than the harmonic minor, at least in classical terms.

Once the Melodic minor was established, it was tweaked slightly since the leading note is very much less important when descending a scale than when ascending the scale. For this reason, the melodic scale is played differently if you are moving upwards than if you are moving downwards in pitch. Downwards in pitch, the melodic minor scale is identical to the natural minor scale - playing scales differently in different directions though is a rarity.

In modern music, the Melodic minor scale does not tend to be very well represented, since musicians are somewhat less concerned about classical conventions (and even in classical time the melodic minor was not used consistently). As a result, the natural minor is used in themajority of cases, and the harmonic minor is used for effect.

Number of tones : 7

Intervals (Ascending) : 2-1-2-2-2-2-1
Intervals (Descending) : 1,2,b3,4,5,6,7

Formula (Ascending) : 2-1-2-2-1-2-2
Formula (Descending) : 1,2,b3,4,5,b6,b7


Characteristic Chords (Ascending) : MinorMajor7
Characteristic Chords (Descending) : m7

Attached Image
Attached Image

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net


Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!


--------------------
Check out my Instructor profile
Live long and prosper ...

My Stuff:

Electric Guitars : Ibanez Jem7v, Line6 Variax 700, Fender Plus Strat with 57/62 Pickups, Line6 Variax 705 Bass
Acoustic Guitars : Taylor 816ce, Martin D-15, Line6 Variax Acoustic 300 Nylon
Effects : Line6 Helix, Keeley Modded Boss DS1, Keeley Modded Boss BD2, Keeley 4 knob compressor, Keeley OxBlood
Amps : Epiphone Valve Jnr & Head, Cockburn A.C.1, Cockburn A.C.2, Blackstar Club 50 Head & 4x12 Cab
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Storm Linnebjerg
Jun 29 2008, 11:09 AM
Learning Rock Star
Posts: 7.676
Joined: 14-June 08
From: Odense, Denmark
Good work, Andrew!

The melodic minor has never been a favorite of mine, but I'll definately see if I can get more out of this now.

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net


Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!


--------------------

Check out my TikTok! - or check out my GMC video comments on YouTube
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post

Reply to this topicStart new topic
1 User(s) are reading this topic (1 Guests and 0 Anonymous Users)
0 Members:

 




RSS Lo-Fi Version Time is now: 19th March 2024 - 06:35 AM