NATURAL MINOR SCALE GUITAR LICKS

Natural Minor Scale Guitar Licks

Learn 4 awesome natural minor scale guitar licks for rock and metal soloing!. The natural minor scale or aeolian mode is an essential rock soloing tool used by rock and metal guitarists. In this guitar lesson you’ll learn how to use it too. Learn the most common natural minor scale pattern (in D minor), discover how to use a ‘minor pentatonic framework as a starting point for your own natural minor scale licks, learn when to use the natural minor scale and discover how to combine the natural minor and blues scale for awesome rock and metal sounds.

So what is the natural minor scale or aeolian mode? I like to think of it as a minor pentatonic with two added notes (the 2nd and flattened 6th). These notes give the natural minor scale it’s distinctive ‘darker’ sound. It’s a great scale choice for playing rock and metal licks in minor keys…and in most cases the notes in the natural minor scale will work well in this setting. From time to time the added notes might not work however, so keep your ears open for any clashes with the chords you are soloing over!

As with learning to use any scale, a good range of licks is helpful. These 4 natural minor scale licks will show you some strong sounding ideas to get you up and running with the scale. Take these licks, dissect them, and recycle them to create your very own natural minor scale licks (this is very important!). So once you’ve got these natural minor licks down, be sure to grab a D minor backing track and experiment. Good luck, and have fun exploring the natural minor scale on your guitar!