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Powerful One-Octave Natural Minor Scales – Part II

A Natural Minor Scales - One Octave Patterns

Hi good people, today we’re going to continue our A Natural Minor (One-Octave) Scales Series with Part II. If you haven’t studied Part I yet, be sure to check it out: Powerful One-Octave Natural Minor Scales – Part I

Benefits of Learning One-Octave Natural Minor Scales.

The one-octave natural minor scales are important scales for Rock, Blues and Pop guitar music, soloing and understanding music theory. They are great for identifying the shape and structure of the scale, the notes within the scale and the intervals. They are also easier to play and comprehend for beginners. For intermediate players they expand the way of approaching scales and soloing.

Natural Minor Scales Starting from the Root Note on the A-string

In Part II we are learning three natural minor scale shape/patterns with the first (root) note starting on the A-string (5th string).

Tip: Learn and memorize the notes on the A-string so you can instantly recognize the key of the scale when you want to move the scale up or down the fretboard.

Natural Minor Scale Fingering

I’ve notated the left hand fingering (right hand players) for all the scale shape / patterns below.

The numbers in the yellow neck diagrams indicate the fingers. The neck diagrams also clearly show what the shape or pattern looks like. Visualize and memorize the shape of each pattern.

How to read tablature? Check out How to Read Guitar Tabs – Tablature

Play the scale shapes using alternative picking alternating down and up strokes. The first note you play is a downstroke, the second an upstroke, the third one a downstroke, the fourth one an upstroke and so on.

Practice the scale in every Key

In the examples below we play the A natural minor scale, but the purpose is to learn these scale shapes/patterns in every possible key. Once you got these scale under your fingers learn the pattern in other keys as well. Move the entire scale up or down the fret to change keys easily. Need more help with that? A more detailed explanation on this in Part I

Now let’s get to it.

Enjoy!

NATURAL MINOR SCALE SHAPES – ROOT NOTE STARTING ON THE 5TH STRING

A NATURAL MINOR SCALE fingering / shape / pattern #4

A Natural Minor Scale - One Octave - Pattern #4

A Natural Minor Scale - fingering - Pattern #4

Powerful One-Octave Natural Minor Scales – Part I

By Klaus Crow 7 Comments

One-Octave-Natural-Minor-Scales - A natural minor scale - Part-I

Today we are going to learn how to play one-octave Natural Minor scales. There are also the more common Two-octave natural minor scales, but in this guitar lesson I’m going to teach you HOW and WHY the one-octave Natural Minor scales are just as important.

Why You Want to Learn One Octave Natural Minor Scales

The one-octave scales are the smaller components of the two-octave scales. Their compact structure and shape makes them easier to play, memorize and comprehend.

Once you get them under your fingers you can combine the patterns to create the two octave and three-octave scales and other wild variations.

Moreover the natural minor scale is the perfect scale to combine with the minor pentatonic / blues scale to add some melodic flavor to your blues and rock soloing.

And last but not least, they give you a better insight in how those scales are constructed and how to easily move them all across the fretboard.

Note: This post is part of a free series where you will learn one-octave natural minor scale shapes across the entire guitar neck that will help you understand and own the natural minor scale landscape.

If you prefer the one-octave “Major Scale” series you can check it out here: Effective One-Octave Major Scales and Why!

How to Record a Song at Home

By Klaus Crow 6 Comments

Have you always wanted to record you own songs? Do you want to record a cover song from your favorite artist? Well this might be the time for you to take your song from the guitar onto the recording tracks and bring it to life so you can share your creativity with the world.

Recording songs is a beautiful and inspiring part of being a musician. There is so much to learn from it and it’s such an enjoyable and fulfilling process. You are now able to sit in the producer’s chair and share your music with just one click away. How great is that?

Do you first need help writing a song check out Why and How to Write Songs on Guitar – Complete Guide!

Prepare

Before you start recording your song make sure you can play (and sing) your song from start to finish. Practice your song as much as you can, so you are ready when you hit that record button.

It’s not necessary to have every detail of the song figured out yet, but the more prepared you are, the easier the recording process will be.

You can also practice your song with a metronome beforehand so when it’s time to record you are used to the feel of a click track (more on that later). A good practice of the song also makes the edit process much easier.

Equipment

To record your song you need to have a couple of things:

A fast computer/laptop
Audio interface
DAW
Microphone
Popfilter
Studio monitors

Microphones can range from $100 dollars to thousands of dollars, but with today’s budget microphones you can get really good high quality recordings.

Why and How to Write Songs on Guitar – Complete Guide!

By Klaus Crow 11 Comments

Why would you want to write a song?

Songwriting is both an art and a craft where you can express your musical creativity, your heart and soul into the ultimate form of a song.

It’s a great learning process for guitar players and all musicians. You’ll discover music on so many new levels and learn to think differently on how to approach your instrument. When you write your own songs you will also learn to transcribe songs faster, and understand and play music in a more proficient way.

I’ve got a lot of guitar students who started writing their own songs and many of them were surprised with how much they enjoyed it and found they could actually write a song. Try it and you might find yourself on a new path you never expected. There is only something to win here.

How to write a song

There are many ways to approach songwriting. You can write a personal story and sing about the struggles and challenges you go through in life. The side effect is highly therapeutic. Many artists do this.

You can also write in a narrative style and bring your own concepts and characters to life through your lyrics. Think about the message you want to get across.

To learn a certain style of songwriting study the professionals. Listen and read the lyrics of your favorite artists, learn how they approach their song writing and convey their stories. Watch interviews on Youtube on their songwriting process. The same goes for the use of chords, chord progressions, melody, rhythm playing, and other musical arrangements. Study, analyze, hear and feel them.

Song Structure

For writing a song you can use different components like an intro, verse, chorus, bridge, instrumental solo and outro. These components or sections are then repeated in some way. The most common forms are:

ABAB : Verse – Chorus – Verse – Chorus
AABA: Verse – Verse – Chorus – Verse
ABABCB: Verse – Chorus – Verse – Chorus – Bridge – Chorus

Around these sections you can create an intro, a guitar solo or an outro.

Tip: Listen to your favorite song writers and figure out what song structure they use and which ones you prefer.

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