Jazz Melodic Minor

The jazz melodic minor scale is a natural minor with raised (major) 6th and 7th steps. This makes it the brightest-sounding minor scale—in fact, the top half of the scale is identical to the major scale. The notes, tones, and intervallic structure are shown below based on E.

⤢

E jazz melodic minor, patterns 1 – 5

The jazz melodic minor scale (sometimes called simply “jazz minor”) has five positional patterns on the neck. The easiest way to learn them is to take the major scale and drop all the 3rds one fret. Of course, this approach assumes you already know the major scale well. If not, it is recommended that you review page 30 first. The minor 3rds are shown in grey.

⤢

Fingering: Pattern 1 is in open (first) position. Pattern 2 is in second position (use 1–2–4 on string 5). Pattern 3 is in fourth position (slide up into fifth on strings 1 and 2). Pattern 4 is in seventh position (stretch back a fret on strings 3 and 5). Pattern 5 is in ninth position (fingering 1–2–4 on string 4).

Here is the full neck for E jazz minor. Omit the B note of string 3 in the lower bracketed pattern 1. The higher pattern 1 avoids this situation by including fret 11.

⤢

Other tonalities

Here is the A jazz minor scale along with the Am anchor chords. Shift into other keys, as well.

⤢

Three notes per string

Below, the jazz minor scale is shown in three-note-per-string patterns in G. Shift into other keys, as well.

⤢