Blues Guitar Lesson - A Natural Minor Licks

Here is one position of the A natural minor scale which is commonly referred to as the A minor scale. (listen to the scale)

Practice this scale until you are comfortable with it. Use all the notes in this scale to solo at any time during this tune. Most players will use the A minor pentatonic scale, and occasionally mix in the A natural minor scale. Using just the A natural minor scale throughout may sound a little predictable and academic. Try mixing it up between the two scales. Now let's learn some licks from the A natural minor scale. (listen to this lick)

Here is another one. (listen to this lick)

Now let's learn one last lick out of the A Natural Minor Scale (listen to this lick)

Here is a more specific use of this scale. In this tune we play a Dm7 chord. Dm7 contains the notes D-F-A-C. The one note in this chord that is not in the A minor pentatonic scale is the note F. A minor pentatonic contains the notes A-C-D-E-G. Notice there is no F. In the A natural minor scale we have the notes A-B-C-D-E-F-G. Notice the note F. If we emphasize the note F from the A natural minor scale when we are playing the Dm7 chord, it sounds especially good. In this way we are “telling the story of the chords” by using the note F when the chord progression is on the Dm7 chord. Another common way to say this is “playing over the chords”. This means we use the notes from the chords to solo. Now let's learn a lick using this idea. (listen to this lick)

This next lick also uses the same idea. (listen to this lick)