Secrets of The Melodic Minor Pentatonic Scales! 

This must be how my grandma feels with her smart phone

A real mental workout here...but I'm on board. This lesson really brings to light a whole new range of tonal colors that go beyond the major pentatonic and minor pentatonic. It's kind of like meeting extended family members.

I think I’ll comeback to this video in ten years, when I’m ready. I feel like the janitor who’s just walked into a university lecture!!!

First of all-cool stuff! Rick is assuming you already understand Melodic Minor Harmony and it's functions. That's actually a big explanation most of the commenters here need. Can be found lots of places. Learn your Melodic Minor Scales in root position. The 7th and 4th modes of the scale yield two very important Altered Dominant Scales used in improvisation. The 7th mode is the Altered Dominant Scale (R, b9, #9, 3, b5, #5, b7 ) and the 4th mode is Lydian Dominant. (Myxolydian Mode with a b5). The first Mode is good for altered Dominant Scales except when combined with 13. The second mode is great for Dom 7 or Dom 9, 13 chords with #11/b5. Anyway-if this is over your head, go back and learn Major Scale Harmony first. Peace and Music, y'all.

After watching this video a few times and drawing some fingerboard diagrams of these scales on graph paper, I realized that on the fifth degree of melodic minor scale, that’s where the Mb6 pentatonic is, and on the 6th degree of the melodic minor scale, that’s where the mb5 pentatonic is. This video is sick. I’m going to keep practicing and making connections . Rick beato you go a little fast some times but you are the man . Can’t wait to get your book

Utterly brilliant video Rick; Thank you! I've loved playing with exotic scales and their derivative Pentatonics for years. This video clarified a lot though. Heres one "I discovered myself" whilst playing some AL di Meola muted type solos: From: A Harmonic Minor (a b c d e f g# a)==> My Al di Penta: Ab B D E F Ab. Works of course over the Scale TOne CHords of A Harm Minor: Emaj Fmaj7#11 Gmaj Am - like any flamenco run. Try playing that Penta run in 7/8 over a 4/4 rhythm - it repeats eventually: D-B-Ab-E-D-B-Ab - REPEAT. Other nice Pentas: (u did this one I think): A-C-D-Eb-G-A Also Ive heard this called Mixolydian Penta or Indian Penta scale: A-C#-D-E-G-A - very Indian Beatles, early Mahavishnu even Jan Hammer & JEff Beck used a lot; And the Iwato mode of the Hirajoshi from Japan: A-Bb-D-Eb-G-A, and the Chinese version of that: A-Bb-D-E-G-A Thanks Rick; your work is always really helpful AND Useful and cool!

Sir, thank you for all the information you share, youtube definitely needs more people like you, peace.

This is more than anyone could ask for..I have gone back to the woodshed, since I am now doing music full time .. Thank you Rick for giving us so much and never tiring from the help and knowledge, you provide...

its just amazing, that people like nick, and many others,are taking the time to share their unbelievable vast knowledge,I believe that utube will change the music world, forever, in such an incredible way.............

Subscribed... bam! This is exactly the sort of framework I've been looking for as I shift from messing with minor 6 scales & diminished scales. A lot of other 'melodic minor' videos just show noodling over a minor chord. I think the beauty of these chords is the tension they create before resolving somewhere.

Very informative and soo inspiring! Never thought much of Pentatonics in Melodic Minor until today. Thank you so much for sharing this, Rick!

Really cool stuff and shown in a way that can open up musical paths that were unbeknownst to me. Great lesson! Thanks for sharing your talents

I’m going to master Greek first, then give this a try.

my head just exploded, i will return to this video over and over again. Its priceless!

Remember that time you played man in the box? That was awesome.

Hey man, thanks for existing and being so cool as to share this gold mine of knowledge with us mortals. This really goes to show one can never learn enough 😊

Fantastic Rick, this video will change my playing concept, my thinking, etc. You are one of the best teachers! Keep on posting. Thank you.

Rick, love these videos, what a great resource.. thanks!

Love playing with these scales. They sound so colourful 😍 thanks for the video.

Yet another video from Rick that I need to save to my favourites list, then keep watching it over and over again until it all makes sense. I love Rick's videos, but sometimes I hate the fact that I love them. I'm sure that there are other things that I need to do, but they will have to wait.

Yo, Rick, just joined the Beato Club. This opened my phone, tvs on how to acceess. I have only had the modem, andphone for years. Also ipad. Today is first time I could use the tv for music. Watched you new access to me on how to practice. It has opened my mind to a game plan for reclaiming music. Sing witl my Bach and think about intervals. Wanted voice lessons. This Bach will allow me to study chords and intervals. This should help my ear. This window is some thing I needed for years. But I am here now. Had desired to get a music education degree. For physical reasons the college campus it too much. You let me study at home. Just did techniqut on piano sang intervals with piano practice. Moved to guitar. I may need a hand surgeon to liposuction my left hand finger pads. Trouble touching just one note. By the time I tuned. My fingers were sore. 15 to 30 min a day on all these things will take up time which I needed. It will energise me and heal my heart. Do you know Mark Knopfler? He writes incredible song? I have seen him. I can try to transcribe a song of his. My guitar practice will give me a time of singing by transposing songs to my vocal range 2 octaves from c3 to c5. I made a booj of the songs I loved. Tended toward folk esp English, Irish and Appalachian. I also an alto in church. This will help me. Once wrote a flute obligato solo for a hymn. I hope to find it in my old staff book in my cabinet. Will add flute and uke. I was so depressed how much my skills had gone but 50 years is a log time. This will be medicine for my mind(much needed ). I care for hospice patients and need happy things. Tried to pick out grandsons favorite song. He enjoys music. Perhaps I can teach him. What a vista! Have a big dose of bipolar and adhd. Instead of sleeping I will be energised to get up and going. I cannot Thank you enough. You will get tired of my emails. HahHah. Have you seen Jamie Dupuis on Utube. He is amazing. If you get this please respond. Trying to open the device doors. Tough with some miles on the finger etc.

I suddenly have a bunch of guitars for sale.

Wow I’ve been searching for these sounds for awhile!! Now time to practice 🤘🏼

very cool, we touched on this when i was studying jazz 20 years ago so it is great getting a reminder about this sort of stuff because i forgot a lot of it 😉👍

really great lesson Rick, like all of them...thanks so much for your selfless sharing of your goldmine of knowledge my friend.

Absolutely love your channel! So helpful and informative!

How simple, yet advanced... and effective! Who knew? Nice one!

Hi Rick. You're a great inspiration to many people. Listening to your videos is like taking a Music Theory class with the Masters, of which you are one. You could have shaken hands with Bach himself, and believe me my friend, I don't say that of many people, even Mozart (whom I don't appreciate, because he never managed to get past I- IV- V). The world needs more people like you. If I'm allowed I would like to point out a slight error @9:17. The Eb melodic minor scale should end with an Eb and not an E natural. Things are complicated enough already, haha. I'll carry on watching. I thoroughly enjoy your most interactive videos. I'm an accordionist, and our poor instrument has NO proper literature; we constantly have to refer to other instruments. That's why your stuff is like caviar to me. God bless.

This is sooo helpful, Rick! Thanks for sharing.

Alrighty then. I've been using altered pentatonics over triads to imply more complicated chords. Now I'll try to compose in melodic minor to match the harmony to the scales more closely. Thanks Rick. This will be fun!

Great video!Trying to wrap my head around these useful scales..Thanks!

rick, thank you for providing this amazing online resource. seriously, thank you.

I’ve been struggling with the melodic minor scale for a few years now. I think this video is just what I need. A lot of times when I’m playing modes of the major scale, I simplify them by thinking of a pentatonic scale and then adding color notes to the pentatonic scale to create the mode. I never thought of applying the same concept to the melodic minor scale. I need to get a pen and paper out and see how it would apply to the the harmonic minor scale

great lesson Rick already coming up with cool lines without thinking about it too hard

Awesome on many levels. A simple concept that's very effective. Thanks rick will be applying this

The Carol Burnette Show theme song jumped out at me when Mr. Beatto illustrated the first scale with the b6. Very cool stuff for the ear. Many thanks.

Thanks Rick! Super helpful. I believe I came across this video awhile back but wasn’t fully ready yet, but I’ve been cramming a lot and practicing and this is now very understandable and we all like pentatonic scales, right. Really liked the video with the pentatonic ideas for 2-5-1s.

This is awesome Rick! Thank you. Gives us two versatile scales that work on all chords in melodic minor harmony!

Hey Rick! :-) We mentioned from a different channel that I had a lesson coming up that was inspired by your original Pentatonics of Melodic Minor Lesson - well it's now live on this channel called "The Pentatonics You DON'T Know" Thanks again for opening our eyes to new possibilities - we've found SO much inspiration and possibility in these new altered pentatonics. All the best from a currently Wet and Grey UK!

Excellent lesson! Thank you very much Maestro

Keep with these videos, Rick, they're awesome! O/

muchísimas gracias por toda la información que nos regalas maestro, increíble labor!

Well, I’ve got a lot better ways to spend my time than trying to reason with people in RU-vid comments, but here goes LOL. You can take three paths with this video. 1) say you suck and go back to Sweet Home Alabama. 2) Blame Rick for making a shitty video. 3) rewind, pause, slow down, etc., all these things we can easily do with the video, and be a much better musician in a few weeks to months. If you’re in category one, I can’t really blame you, I don’t have a problem with wanting to keep things simple, jazz isn’t for everyone. You don’t need this scale to play in a cover band at a sports bar or street fair. In fact, you shouldn’t bring this scale to your sports bar or street fair gig. Unless you live on the hippest street on earth I suppose. Category two is the saddest of all categories: sour grapes. You likely have a solid understanding of elementary theory, but you don’t want to spend the time drilling down into the wealth of information in this video, because it’s intimidating. One gem of a comment says, “I’m four minutes in and you haven’t even explained the concepts, just some scales.“ What’s the hurry dude? Are you suggesting 4 minutes should be enough to teach all the scales AND concepts of melodic minor pentatonics? Well, you might think you’re suggesting that, but what you’re actually exclaiming publicly is, you needed to make an excuse to make this video go away. But it won’t go away… It will never go away… The knowledge is there, and you’re not willing to put in the work to obtain it. Category 3? Join the club. I graduated with honors from a rigorous university jazz program, I have been a professional musician (mostly pop styles, not a ton of jazz) for over 20 years, and tutor grad level students in theory, and this video blew my mind. I did learn all the melodic minor modes back in college, but this concept of these pentatonic scales kind of being the glue between diverse tonalities derived from a parent melodic minor scale, is truly eye opening. I estimate with regular practice I could assimilate this into my regular playing in 6 months, so considering I won’t practice it regularly, maybe a year ;) At any rate, this video holds an incredible wealth of information, if you don’t get it, don’t shoot the messenger.

Love your videos!!! I need to sit down with a teacher and get this stuff engraved in my heart. Thank you, B

Great lessons Rick. Thanks!

This got me whacked! Rick Beato and Jens Larsen knows their stuff!

Rick these videos are blowing my god-damn mind. Thanks.

Awesome as always. Also, I wish I had bought one of those guitars when they were available. Very cool. Killer value too.

Thank you, Rick!

Daym..man! Speechless..A lifetime is no where near enough to learn that stuff..brain feels like scrambled eggs..Thanks though for that sublime knowledge.. Getting on it slowly..one step at a time...

Great lesson for intermediate or advanced Jazz guitar students. The rest of us can learn that altering one note in a pentatonic scale can add color and interest. Just experiment with different chords under it and what sounds good to your ear.

Dude. Mind. Blown. Thank you 🙏🏻

Just tried watching this with subtitles.... "Hi, I'm Rigby Otto!!" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I finally understand what F melodic minor is now. Thanks Rick!!!

One I love to use is the Mi-Ma7 pentatonic (R - b3 - 4 - 5 - Ma7) half a step above an altered chord, i.e. Ab Mi-Ma 7 pentatonic over G Alt. Yields b9 - Ma3 - #11 - b13 - R relative to the G Alt chord. Thanks as always for the awesome videos, Rick. :)

C# Major pentatonic over G7 works also well to get some alterations:-) Thanks Rick for the inspiring tutorials! U are Great!

Hello from Nashville !! Thanks for the help man !

Thank you so much (!!!!!) Rick Beato! You have just prove that it is possible learning an old dog sit!

Thank you , a really good class for sure - its advance stuff you need a good background to follow eveything

Sweet substitution, easy with a little edge. Thanks alot

i feel like i'm sitting there with you. love your train of thought

Whole concept in 5 seg. 1:25-1:30. And rest is development. You are monster teacher!

oh yeah the secret sauce right here. OMG WHY HAS THIS ONLY SHOWN UP IN MY FEED TODAY!!!! 4 years later LOL

Astounding! Never even heard of these pentatonic scales, not even in a jazz scales book I have (of which I requested a refund after this video)

Awesome info thanks so much!

Awesome great lesson a lot easier for me to memorise and actually use these pentatonic shapes rather than all the melodic minor scale shapes.. thanks 🙏

Fantastic information!

dude you r a beast .. i only know major & minor ... thanx for the info. tons of info.

Cool stuff - I dig the mb5 scale

Great!!! Loved it!!!

This is perhaps the most eye-opening lesson in my life after 10 years of playing.

Great info! Thanks rick

This concept is for playing over the specific chords of MM The other thing you can do is play over common blues rock by making blues patterns out of MM dorian b2. Has the common minor pentatonic in it , then lydian dominant , outlines the next position etc My favorite thing is to make blues patterns by playing half whole diminished over MM Example the V mode of Mel Minor is Melodic Major aka Mixolydian b 6 , the W 1/2 diminished falls over it giving you all the blue notes to minor pentatonic blues I then do that with all the scales Dorian b 2 is also known as the phrygian natural 6 ( works good on purple haze!) The odd thing about it is the way 1/2 W diminished falls over it Just like major mode iii phrygian , you start 1/2 w a half step up from the root , the passin tones can give you the regular dorian shape or a mixolydian shape , the key doesn't change because of the diminished ladder is relative to ii , you could also modulate to V. So on and so fourth I learned most of these things from trumpeter Willie Thomas at jazz everyone

LOVE your vids. Just a friendly suggestion after reading some comments. It's probably easier for students to understand if everything is explained out of ONE melodic minor scale, i.e. F Melodic Minor produces C Major b6 Pent (1 2 3 5 b6) starting from F's 5th (C). This C Major b6 Pent idea can be played over all chords the F Melodic Minor scale/mode produces (as stated). F Melodic Minor also produces D Minor b5 Pent (1 3 4 b5 b7), starting from F's 6th (D) and can be played over all the same chords produced from F Melodic Minor. (These Pentatonics will sound more interesting over some chords than others to most students.) This is all still a bit technical but really can't be completely avoided. This is the way I explain the more complex things in my book (lots of charts and diagrams to help of course) and it does seem to work for students. Again...Love the channel.

Great video! you should do a studio tour or something to show everything you have going on around there.

Excelente vídeo para estudiar 📖 Saludos desde Chile! 🇨🇱

I am subscribed to your videos even though I don't understand any of what you are saying. Occasionally watching during my studies to see how far I'm coming along

I'm getting a D# migraine trying to grasp all this !

Rick such a great lesson love you tons

It's an incredible video.. Very unique

Man... you're the best!!!! :D

Thank you for this video!!

Rick Beato, making the world better one mode at a time!!!

What a great lesson!

Took a while to learn that regardles of a major or minor chord or mode, I can do intervalic-wise pentatonic runs based either on major-pent. or minor-pent. intervals. Play minor-pent. like over "any mode", it becomes the arpeggio + 4th. If I do the major pent. over "any mode", I get, the arpeggio + 2nd + 6th and no 7th. Such a lotta fun, but hey that should be secret.

Love playing these ideas on flute...and am always looking for ways to memorize concepts like these...so basically, any given melodic minor scale contains TWO (familiar ones + an alteration) pentatonics, one the 5th degree and one on the 6th degree.

This lesson is actually fascinating. BUT because it's talking about the melodic minor than it's best to get to know the scale and it's modes ... Pretty complexed but it's all about cool sounds

Thanks for this very interesting video

The one I had learned was 1 2 b3 5 6....that way, you don't have an added layer of abstraction ( like over G7#5, play Eb major 6 Pent instead of Ab Melodic Minor, you would just play Ab Minor 6 Pent over the chord.) But maybe that's not getting the best flavor of the chord - I'll analyze 'em all when I get home from work! Thanks Rick!

Hey Rick, My names Rick too and I like your vids! Thanks Rick! lol

Oh My wow.. I never came across these,, I heavily abuse all Melodic minor modes and symmetrical scales in my jazz improv I also use sort of a bepob minor pentatonic alot. 1, b3 . nat 3 , 4 , b5 m Nat 5 m b7 ,nat 7, 8. just for fun. but never came across these.. Thank you. Rick you never fail to amaze me. I certainly have something new to work on this week .

One weird but practical way to think about this- what makes these two pent scales unique, is the half step in them. And the half step is the same between both versions in any given key. It really is, try it. So if you can figure out where that half step belongs in whatever iteration of Mel minor you’re using or superimposing, these patterns are just 2 different ways of filling the gaps around that half step.

great work dude! more blues pleeeese!

Holy cow,my mind is blown.Thanks

A lot of the comments are about not understanding any of this but to be fair there is no introduction to the Melodic Minor scale in this particular video. Once you understand what that is (its actually major with a b3 so 1 2 b3 4 5 6 7) then from there everything is a linear process of deducting chords from that scale. Its beyond rudimentary theory but its not infinitely hard to grasp once you put it to paper and try to play it on your instrument

most of the things flew over my head!

Wow, I was feeling all Ionian before I watched three minutes of this and I became Locrian. Halfway through I posted all my guitars on EBay.

Great lesson .

Great! Thanks master!

Great lesson. I'm excited to try these scales in all keys on my piano. Rick, at 9:09 in video the F Melodic Minor Scale is missing a flat (b) sign on the 4. It should be Bb not B. You say B as well but I think you realised at the time. Thanks.