I have been starting to explore jazz theory in more depth and have run into the fact that I’m really not that familiar with the melodic minor scale and its modes. For example, the 6th mode of melodic minor (Locrian #2, or Aeolian b5) can be used to play over m7b5 chords. This post won’t deal with those details – we’ll save those for later – just some basic fingerings for the melodic minor scale to get the ball rolling.
One thing that helps me is understanding that melodic minor is the same as the major scale (ionian mode) with a flattened 3rd, that is: R 2 b3 4 5 6 7
The following patterns are working for me to get some familiarisation with the melodic minor. You can see from pattern 1 that by raising the b3 a semitone you get the major scale (ionian mode) again.
