Minor scales provide a very useful color or emotion, a dark or solemn color, very much the opposite of the bright sound of the major scale.
Compared to the major scale, there are three notes modified to make the scale minor. These are scale degrees 3, 6, and 7. All three of these scale degrees are lowered by one half-step (one key on piano or one fret on guitar) and can also be written as b3, b6, and b7. (b = flat)
[br]
Below are the same scales represented in the fretboard grid format. Notice how there are seven scale degrees, just like the major scale, making them both diatonic scales.
[br]
[br]
Practice these scales frequently, as they will turn up in many styles of music. Latin or spanish-influenced music is an example of one genre that makes heavy use of minor scales. (Example: Tico Tico, a famous latin-inspired standard from the 1940s.)
[br][br]