24: Minor Scales
General Minor Scale Info
If you hear music which evokes a feeling of sadness or melancholy, you
can bet it’s in a minor key.
This change in emotion is brought about by lowering a few degrees of the
major scale by half a step.
There are three types of minor scale: natural minor, harmonic minor,
and melodic minor. Just like the Major scale, each minor scale has a
different scheme of whole and half steps.
The good news is that you don’t have to memorize those schemes, we’ll
just alter the Major scale to get the minor scales.
Even better news is that the only minor scale that gets a lot of use is the
harmonic minor scale. But the others are important too, especially the
natural minor.The Natural Minor Scale
It’s easy to get a key signature for a natural minor scale: simply add
three flats to the key signature of a Major scale.
Which three flats? Well, it depends on the major scale. You add the next
three flats in the key signature. For example, the key of F Major has one
flat, a Bb. If we wanted to get F minor, we’d add the next three flats in
the order of flats, which are Eb, Ab, and Db.Example 24.1 The key signatures of F Major and f minor.
I’m sure you’re saying, “But wait a minute, that’s also the key of Ab
Major, isn’t it?” Yes it is. What’s different is the starting note of the
scale.F Major f minor