F# Melodic Minor — 5-String Banjo

F# Melodic Minor is 7 notes to the octave (common family), drawn here across the 5-String Banjo's gDGBD strings with every F# marked, so home stays visible from anywhere in the pattern.

Minor at the bottom, major at the top — the b3 keeps it minor while the natural 6 and 7 lift the upper half into a smooth climb home. Bittersweet rather than dark, with a polished, modern-jazz sheen.

Heard in: Jazz lines over minor and altered chords, film scoring, and classical melodies rising to the tonic — Bach, Mozart, and bebop alike.

A scale here always has to negotiate with the short g: it is one fixed pitch that belongs to some keys and argues with others, so these maps mark where it falls inside the pattern instead of hiding it.

Learn it as melody first and picking pattern second: get the notes under the left hand, then work out which right-hand fingers reach them without breaking the pulse. That second question is the one that takes the time.