Apart from major keys, the other basic tonality used in western music are minor keys. Songs in a minor key use notes taken from a minor scale. There are three types of minor scales – the natural minor scale, the harmonic minor scale and the melodic minor scale. The A natural minor scale is shown in the following example. The degrees of the scale as they would relate to the major scale are written under the note names.
The A natural minor contains exactly the same notes as the B. The difference is that it starts and finishes on an A note instead of a C note. The A note then becomes the key note.
Heres is the full fingering for the A natural minor scale in the open position, moving up to the high A at the 5th fret on the first string. Learn it from memory and then play it with your eyes closed, naming the notes out loud, and then naming the scale degrees out loud.