DIAGRAM1 CAGED SHAPES FOR MELODIC MINOR in a

Diagram 1 presents an overview of the A Melodic Minor scale in five shapes (black circles = chord shape). Within each shape, we can see the corresponding A minor-major 7 chord indicated in black. In shape #5, we’ve borrowed the major 7th on the fourth string from shape 1 in order to arrive at a practical higher register voicing with the root note omitted. When playing lower down on the fretboard, another possibility would be to play the root note on the sixth string and remove the major 7th degree on the fourth string (as we already have a major 7th on the first string).