Home › Lessons › Intermediate › The Natural Minor Scale

Intermediate dobro lesson

The Natural Minor Scale on Dobro

In this lesson Mark explains the natural minor scale as the major scale with the third, sixth and seventh notes flatted by a half step. He demonstrates it in the key of G starting on the open sixth string.

What you'll learn

• How the natural minor scale relates to the major scale
• Which notes are flatted: the third, the sixth and the seventh
• That those notes are flatted by a half step
• The G natural minor scale starting on the open sixth string

Step by step

1. Sixth string: open, second fret, third fret.
2. Fifth string, first fret.
3. Fourth string: open, first fret, third fret.
4. Third string open.

In Mark's words

“The minor scale is essentially the major scale except for that the third, the sixth, and the seventh notes are all flatted.”

“The third, the sixth, and the seventh notes are all flatted by a half step.”

Questions

What is the natural minor scale?

Mark describes the natural minor scale as essentially the major scale with the third, sixth and seventh notes all flatted by a half step.

How do you play a G natural minor scale on dobro?

Mark starts on the sixth string open, then the second and third frets, then the fifth string first fret, the fourth string open, first fret and third fret, and ends on the open third string.

Which notes are flatted in the natural minor scale?

The third, the sixth and the seventh notes, each by a half step.

Keep going