The melodic minor scale…..

It goes one way on the way up and another way on the way down.

Wan asked me the other day why it’s important to learn on saxophone, so I thought about that for a minute.  There are reasons…. but understanding why the scale is built the way it is helps to get why you might want to be familiar with it.

Original post was on https://saxstation.com/saxophone-pentatonic-scales-major-minor.htm

Wan:
Hi Neal,
Can you please explain why melodic minor scales are important for jazz improvisation..beside Blues and bebop?
Tq

Neal: It’s a certain flavor of the minor scale, sometimes you want to use that flavor in your sound. Remember that the minor third is what gives the minor scale the ‘minor’ sound though. So you can choose to use the melodic minor or the dorian or the phyrigian or some other variation. Whatever seems to fit in the music and in your idea of what you want to sound like.

You might want to think about why the melodic minor scale exists. It’s one way ascending and another way descending. This makes it more comfortable for singers. On saxophone….. it’s not as hard to do the same thing ascending and descending. So the melodic minor scale isn’t as crucial.

Some melodies might use the melodic minor scale though, esp. if they were written with singers in mind, and if you’re playing it on saxophone it will be useful to have the melodic minor scale under your fingers.

Wan: Thanks Neal