Descending natural and melodic minor scales
When you end your line on the B, it sounds as if something is missing, as if it’s not finished. Play the C major scale starting on C and go up till you reach the 7 th note, the B. Let me illustrate this with the C major scale. In our case, the leading tone resolves to the root of the scale we’re in. A leading tone is a note that resolves to another note a semitone up (or down). To understand this, you have to look at the leading tone (also called leading note). Now, why only just the natural minor scale is not enough? Why do we need more than one simple minor scale?
#Descending natural and melodic minor scales how to
(if you don’t know how to form a major scale, see my lesson “ How to form a major scale“)īelow, a sound sample of the C natural minor scale: C natural minor and Eb major have the same notes in their scales. Or, in other words: you can find a relative minor of a major scale by going up a major 6 th interval (or going down a minor 3 rd interval, the result is the same, you will arrive at the same note).įor example, to find the C natural minor scale, go a minor 3 rd up from C to find its relative major scale, which is Eb major. In general, you can say: a natural minor scale can be found by playing the notes of a major scale starting on the 6 th note of that major scale. Notice that A is the 6 th note in the scale of C major. So both scales share exactly the same notes, they only start on a different note. Or, you can also say: C major is the relative major of A minor. You can say that A minor is the relative minor of C major. For example: the notes of the A natural minor scale are exactly the same as the notes of the C major scale, the A natural minor scale only starts on the A instead of on the C. I will here only briefly describe the natural minor scale, since you can have all the details of this scale in the lesson “ How to form a natural minor scale“.įirst of all: why is the natural minor scale named as such? This is because the natural minor scale is based on the major scale. Natural minor – The C natural minor scale You will discover all of this here in this tutorial. What is the difference between harmonic and melodic minor? How are the 3 types of minor scales formed? There exists only 1 type of major scale, but there are 3 types of minor scales: natural minor, harmonic minor and melodic minor. In order to build an A Harmonic Minor Scale we simply play the natural minor scale, but raise the 7th note.4 Minor scales – Natural vs harmonic vs melodic Let’s have a look at some examples: A Harmonic Minor Scale Tone – Semitone – Tone – Tone – Semitone – Tone and a half – Semitone Now raise the 7th note by another semitone so the pattern becomes: Simply work out the natural minor using the set minor scale intervals outlined above (Tone – Semitone – Tone – Tone – Semitone – Tone – Tone). It’s easy to work out any harmonic minor scale. This is caused by the raised seventh note of the scale. The harmonic minor scale has a slightly more intense feel to it than the natural minor scale. This is because the key signature of D minor has one flat, B Flat. This tells the performer to play a B flat instead of a B natural each time. Notice how we have added a B Flat to the key signature at the start of the scale. Have a look/listen to the A Natural Minor being played on the piano: You have just played an ascending A Natural Minor Scale.Ĭome back down again and you have just played the descending A Natural Minor Scale. Look at a keyboard and play a scale (of all the white notes) starting on A and going up until you reach the A above it (I have highlighted these notes in red on the keyboard above). The key signature of A minor tells us that there are no sharps or flats (in other words, you play all the white notes on a keyboard and none of the black notes). Let’s have a look at two examples of natural minor scales: A Natural Minor Scale The natural minor scale follows the notes set out in the key signature for the scale without any changes. It is the same pattern of notes when going up the scale as when going down the scale. Tone – Semitone – Tone – Tone – Semitone – Tone – Tone The set pattern of intervals for the notes of the natural minor scale is: It follows a set pattern of note intervals. The natural minor scale is the most basic form of the minor scale. Let’s have a look at each minor scale in turn. However, there are in fact 3 minor scales which you will come across and can use:Įach scale sounds similarly “minor-like”, but they each also have their own unique flavour. The minor scale is the scale which sounds negative – it is used by composers to depict sad, melancholic or even angry/dramatic moods.