F Natural Minor Scale on Oud

Play the F Natural Minor scale on Oud with fretboard diagrams that map the pattern across the neck. The Natural Minor scale has 7 notes per octave and belongs to the common family.

F is available as an open course on Oud, and 3 of its 5 open courses are scale tones — C (the 5th), F (the root), G (the 2nd). The A and D strings sit outside the scale. Open, the courses cover C2 to C4.

It is also known as the Aeolian scale.

The standard natural minor scale — melancholic, introspective, and deeply emotive. The most common minor sound in Western music.

Heard in: Pop, rock, classical, metal — the default minor sound of Western music.

Oud is tuned C–F–A–D–G–C, with 12 frets to work with. Positions are computed for this tuning; traditional technique may use idiomatic voicings not shown here.

Each position shows the scale notes and their intervals from the root so you can connect the shape to its sound, hear it with audio playback, and practice it in any register. Movable patterns let you transpose the same fingering to other keys once it is learned.

Once a position is under your fingers, link the F Natural Minor scale to the chords it harmonizes and to progressions in the key of F to start improvising and writing with it. Working a scale alongside its chords is the fastest way to make it stick and to hear how it colors a progression.