Does it help at all to think of the natural minor scale in it's relative Major key as far as scale patterns go and just change where the root and subsequent note numbers land in your thinking? Example: All the notes in C Major are the same as A minor (It's relative natural minor.) Just have to think of the note numbers differently. So the root or I (A) in A minor is the VI (6) scale step in the key of C. This possibly allows you to memorize a little less scale patterns. Am I an idiot for approaching it this way?