When learning how to play jazz, and other improvisational genres of music, learning how to play the seven modes of melodic minor is an essential skill any guitarist should have in their soloing tool belt. While we know that learning the seven modes of melodic minor is important, sometimes it can seem like a tough task, and we feel we have to start from scratch when learning these seven modes.
When learning how to play jazz, and other improvisational genres of music, learning how to play the seven modes of melodic minor is an essential skill any guitarist should have in their soloing tool belt.
While we know that learning the seven modes of melodic minor is important, sometimes it can seem like a tough task, and we feel we have to start from scratch when learning these seven modes.
But that doesn’t have to be the case.
In this lesson, you will learn how to simply change one note of each major mode in order to quickly learn all seven modes of the melodic minor scale.
If you are new to the major modes, check out my previous lesson, Major Modes Made Easy, for a refresher on these important melodic devices.
Melodic Minor Mode 1
To begin, let’s take a look at how you can alter one note from the Ionian mode to create the first mode of melodic minor, otherwise known as the melodic minor scale itself.
In order to do this, you play an Ionian mode but lower the third note of the fingering to form the first mode of melodic minor. Because of this alteration, you can think of the MM 1 fingering as being an Ionian b3 shape.
Here is how those two interval