Home Row Scales Part 4: Minor to Dorian

Like the Major scale form I have been basing the previous lessons on, the Minor scale form is particularly useful as a “Home Row” scale. The shape is easy to move from key to key and to play new modes, all you have to do is change 1 note.

Here is the A Natural Minor Scale as shown in the hand out and video below.

A B C D E F G A

To make this a Dorian mode, we raise the 6th Scale degree (F to F#)

A Dorian

A B C D E F# G A

The Dorian mode is the same as the Minor Scale but with a Raised 6th Scale Degree.

Dorian scales are used extensively in jazz and other forms of popular music. Anytime we see a minor 7 (-7) chord then we can use the Dorian mode over that chord, sometimes over whole sections like the verses and chorus of Van Morrison’s Moondance (A-7 | B-7|)

I recommend loading a simple progression like the one above into iReal Pro or playing it as a loop, and then improvising until you are comfortable in the position.

Try it out!