Originally Posted by: StormyI hope this isn't a stupid question. But why is this called an A natural minor? http://www.worldguitar.com/anatminor.jpg is it because the root note is an A?

Thanks

Partially. It's an A minor scale because it's root starts on A. It's referred to as natural because all of its notes are naturally found in a major scale. C major in this case. A minor is the Aeolian (minor) mode of C major.

C Major:
CDEFGAB

A Minor
ABCDEFG

See how these two different scales have the exact same notes? What's different is their tonal focus (where they start and end).