A look at Major and Minor Guitar Scales

There are many different scales for guitar, but the two main types are major and minor guitar scales.

To learn how to a Major scale is constructed see the MajorGuitar Scale page.

The Minor Scale

Start with a C Minor scale. The notes of this scale are

C D Eb F G Ab Bb C (the 'b' symbol means a 'flat' note)

I will show the notes on a piano keyboard like this -

As you can see, there are extra notes in between the C Minor scale notes.

These gaps determine how a Minor scale sounds. The gaps between the scale look like this -

C (Gap) D (No Gap) Eb (Gap) F (Gap) G (No Gap) A (Gap) Bb (Gap) C

To make it easier to read I will show a Gap as Number 1 and No Gap as 0 -

C 1 D 0 E 1 F 1 G 0 A 1 B1 C

So the Minor Scale gaps are 1 0 1 1 0 1 1

Playing this on the guitar is really easy. Start on C (A string/5th string, 3rd Fret)

Going up the fretboard, play the notes, leaving gaps in the right places.

This same scale shape can be used starting on any fret. Starting on fret 5 is the D Minor scale, starting on Fret 7 is the E Minor scale etc. To play a Minor scale on the guitar you can use a variety of different scale shapes, as long as the gaps are kept the same ( 1 0 1 1 0 1 1)

Back to Music Theory from Major and Minor Guitar Scales