Guitar scale
A Melodic Minor Guitar Scale
A Melodic Minor is a seven-note scale built from A, B, C, D, E, F#, and G#. Use it to study the scale's notes, interval formula, and guitar fretboard positions.
- Notes
- A, B, C, D, E, F#, G#
- Formula
- 1 2 b3 4 5 6 7
- Semitones
- 0 2 3 5 7 9 11
How to read this scale
The notes are shown as pitch classes first. Square markers representA root notes in the fretboard view, while circular markers represent the other notes in the scale.
Use the interactive fretboard to locate the A root notes and connect the remaining melodic minor tones across standard tuning.
Sound and defining tones
A melodic minor combines a minor third with natural sixth and major seventh: b3 (C), 6 (F#), and 7 (G#). This page uses the modern or jazz form, keeping the same notes in both directions.
- Characteristic tones
- b3C6F#7G#
Fretboard diagram
Open this scale in the fretboard tool
Start with A Melodic Minor loaded, then adjust tuning, labels, colors, fret count, and orientation.
Open in interactive fretboardCommon chords and contexts
Use A melodic minor over AmMaj7 or Am6 harmony and as the parent collection for melodic-minor modes used over altered and extended dominant chords.
- Use A melodic minor over AmMaj7 sounds or modern minor-key harmony.
- It is common in jazz minor vocabulary and gives minor chords a smoother major 6 and major 7 color.
Practice this scale on guitar
- Play A Melodic Minor from one A root to the next in at least two fretboard positions, saying each note name and scale degree aloud.
- Compare b3 (C), 6 (F#), and 7 (G#) with the flat sixth and flat seventh of natural minor, keeping the root and minor third constant.
- Sustain AmMaj7 and create phrases that resolve the major seventh to the root while preserving the minor third.