The Natural Minor Scale :: In lesson 8 we first met the major scale. We are now going to look at another scale that is important in Western music. It is called the natural minor scale or ancient minor scale. We have marked the notes A in pink on the keyboard below and our first natural minor scale is going to begin on A. C D E F G A B * C D E F G A B C D E F G A B Starting from the key marked A below middle C (that is, the key C with an asterisk), play the naturals (the white keys) in ascending order, A, B, C, D, E, F, G and finish on the A above middle C. This sequence or row of eight notes is the A natural minor scale, the natural minor scale in which the key-note is A. Music written using the notes of this scale is said to be 'in the key of A minor'. As in major scales, each note must bear a different 'letter' name and the different notes are called the degrees of the scale. The key note is called the 'first degree of the scale', B is the 'second degree of the scale', and so on. What makes this a natural minor scale is the distinctive sequence of tones (whole steps) and semitones (half steps). If we write down the intervals between the notes rather than the key names then the A minor scale is tone-semitone-tone-tone-semitone-tone-tone, seven intervals between eight notes. In whole step, half step notation the interval sequence is written whole step - half step - whole step - whole step - half step - whole step - whole step. If you play any other ascending row of eight consecutive naturals you will find many different sequences of intervals but A minor is the only natural minor scale using only the white keys. We illustrate this scale below. Natural Minor Scale Chart of the Natural Minor Scales :: Double Sharps & Flats :: When discussing the pattern of intervals characteristic to major scales we noted that each note of the scale must have a different 'letter' name. Similarly, in minor scales the same convention must be followed. However, with minor scales we will have to incorporate the additional concept of scale modification by 'raising' or 'lowering' notes. Musicians like to preserve the sense of 'key' in the notation and so, when a note already sharpened by the key signature is to be 'raised' or sharpened further, we use the double sharp sign . In a similar way, a 'flat' note 'lowered' further, is marked with a double flat sign . A double sharp, or double flat, raises, or lowers, the pitch of the note a full tone above the note with no accidental. So, F double sharp is enharmonic to G natural. Both signs follow the standard rules for accidentals. These signs will be considered further when we discuss intervals in lesson 12. Harmonic Minor :: To satisfy the harmonic requirements of music written in minor keys, in particular that they preserve some of the harmonic characteristics associated with major scales, our natural minor scale has to be modified. If you look at a major scale you will remember that the seventh degree, the leading note is only a semitone below the tonic. The term leading note is a good description of the way it works harmonically. The leading note draws or 'leads' you to the tonic above. The reason for this will become clearer once we examine chords and cadences in a later lesson. Looking again at our minor scale you will see that the leading note is a tone below the tonic above it - this weakens its harmonic effect as a 'leading' note. The problem is overcome by sharpening the leading note, changing G to G sharp, so that the row is now A, B, C, D, E, F, G sharp, A and the interval sequence becomes tone-semitone-tone-tone-semitone-tone and a half-semitone. This scale is called the harmonic minor and is the same up and down. A common question is 'why is the harmonic minor scale so named?'. To understand chord names and numbering you may wish to preview lesson 16. If the dominant (V) is to lead back to the tonic (I), usually by using a dominant 7th, the dominant chord must be a major chord. The 3rd of the minor scale must be raised (to form a major 3rd) to produce the tritone, (see lesson 12 - the tritone), that unsettles the dominant 7th thereby providing the pull back to the tonic. In the G7 chord, G-B-D-F, the tritone lies between B and F. If the 3rd of the dominant chord was to remain flat (the interval remaining a minor 3rd) there would be no tritone and the V chord would not have a dominant pull leading back to the tonic (I). In fact, the Gm7 chord, G-Bb-D-F, has a perfect fifth between Bb and F which effectively stabilizes the dominant chord. If you would like to hear a harmonic minor scale played we have included a score produced with the music publishing program Sibelius. To play the scale, press the play button below. Harmonic Minor Scale You can hear other harmonic scales by 'transposing' the score using the transpose button above and we have included a chart of all the scales below. Note that the accidental (the sharp sign in front of the G) is shown in the melodic line and not placed in the key signature which remains that of the natural minor scale on the same key-note. Chart of the Harmonic Minor Scales :: Melodic Minor :: The modification leading to the harmonic minor scale produces one peculiar feature. The interval between the sixth and seventh degrees of the scale is now a tone and a half which is uncomfortably wide when writing melody. It would be better if we could widen the interval between the fifth and sixth degrees, from a semitone to a tone, and narrow the interval between the sixth and seventh degrees, to a tone. The row then becomes A, B, C, D, E, F sharp, G sharp, A and the interval sequence becomes tone-semitone-tone-tone-tone-tone-semitone. Did you notice that this is just the major scale on A, but with a flattened third (C sharp in the major scale, C natural in our new minor scale)? What distinguishes the new melodic minor scale from the harmonic minor scale in the previous section is that the scale is not the same down as it is up. When a melody moves down the scale, from the tonic to the leading note below it, it does not matter whether the interval is a tone or a semitone. This only matters when the melody moves up, from the leading note to the tonic. Indeed, the 'pull' from the flattened sixth to the dominant (the fifth) is of greater importance. The falling melodic minor scale in the key of A minor is the falling natural minor scale. The falling melodic minor scale is A, G, F, E, D, C, B, A. If you would like to hear a melodic minor scale use the play button. Melodic Minor Scale You can hear other melodic scales by 'transposing' the score using the transpose button above. We have included a chart of the melodic minor scales below. Chart of the Melodic Minor Scales :: Relative & Parallel Major & Minor :: Starting on different key notes we can work out the note rows for all twelve harmonic minor and melodic minor scales. We find that in each case there is a minor key with the same key signature as a corresponding major key. These are set out in the table below. Key signature Major Key Minor Key no sharps or flats C major a minor 1 sharp G major e minor 2 sharps D major b minor 3 sharps A major f sharp minor 4 sharps E major c sharp minor 5 sharps B major g sharp minor 6 sharps F sharp major d sharp minor 7 sharps C sharp major a sharp minor 1 flat F major d minor 2 flats B flat major g minor 3 flats E flat major c minor 4 flats A flat major f minor 5 flats D flat major b flat minor 6 flats G flat major e flat minor 7 flats C flat major a flat minor The progression of increasing sharp keys has a standard upward 'shift' of a perfect fifth, i.e. seven semitones. So G is a fifth above C and F sharp is a fifth above B natural.The progression of increasingly flat keys has a standard upward 'shift' of a perfect fourth, i.e. five semitones, although this is actually arrived at by 'shifting' downwards a perfect fifth, i.e. seven semitones. In the diatonic scale 7 and 5 are called 'complementary' because they total to 12, the number of semitones in the perfect octave. The interval from C to F is a fourth, as is the interval from D flat to G flat. If you take the keys with the same letter name and add the number of sharps and flats in the two key signatures, the result is always 7 (except for C flat and C sharp major where the number of sharps and flats totals 14). So for A major, 3 sharps, and A flat major, 4 flats, the total is 7. This is also true with the minor keys. This provides a welcome 'rule of thumb' when trying to remember the number of sharps or flats in the more sharp or flat key signatures. Comparing the key signatures of 'enharmonic' keys, for example D flat major and C sharp major one discovers that the total number of sharps and flats in the two key signatures equals 12. D flat major has 5 flats and C sharp major has 7 sharps. This is another useful 'rule' for calculating quickly the number of sharps or flats in a particular key. Remember that while key signatures do not contain more than 7 sharps or 7 flats, modulations from keys with this number of sharps and flats can lead to a temporary situtation where there are more than 7 flats or 7 sharps in operation. In these cases, double sharps or double flats may appear. Does the 'rule of 12' work for these more exotic keys, for example, G sharp major with 8 sharps, D sharp major with 9 sharps or F flat major with 8 flats? Noting that double sharps count as 2 sharps and double flats as 2 flats, we find that, for example, E flat major with 3 flats and D sharp major with 9 sharps, (E flat and D sharp are enharmonic), again gives a total of 12 sharps and flats. When trying to remember the particular sharps or flats for major keys observe that the key name of sharp keys is one semitone above the last applied sharp. So in G major, the last sharp applied is a semitone lower F sharp. In D major, the applied sharps are F sharp and then C sharp, the latter a semitone below D. For the flat keys, the key name is the last but one applied flat. So B flat major has two flats, B flat and then E flat, the earlier naming the key. This makes it easy to read the key of a piece of music from the last applied sharp or flat. Be careful though that you are in a major key and not in a minor key. It is a 'convention' widely used to show the key-notes of minor keys in lower case and those of major keys in upper case or capital letters. Because the key signatures for A flat major and f minor are identical, f minor is said to be the relative minor to A flat major and A flat major is said to be the relative major to f minor. However, this 'relationship' is specious. The real 'relatives' are the pairs of keys with the same key note - for example, A flat major and a flat minor. These are called parallel keys. The pair can also be termed tonic major and tonic minor to indicate the common tonic or key note. In baroque dance suites, dances may occur in pairs, i.e. two minuets or two gavottes, where one is written in the major key and the other is written in the minor key with the same key note. In such cases, the composer may ask the performer to repeat the first of the pair, placing the second between two performances of the first. Lesson 31 discusses how the score reader may be able to distinguish between the use of major and minor keys by examining the use of accidentals and particular chord forms.