Basic Music Theory
If you go up the G Major scale, what is the 6th note? I’ll wait while
you figure it out ....
It’s E, isn’t it? Play or sing a scale with the key of G, but play it from E
to E and you’ve got the E natural minor scale.
If you take any major scale and play it from the sixth note to the next
sixth note an octave higher, you’ll have played the relative minor scale
of the major key.
So e minor is the relative minor of G Major; A minor is the relative
minor of C Major; G minor is the relative minor of Bb Major; B minor
is the relative minor of D Major; and so on.
The cool thing about this is that when learning natural minor scales,
you don’t really have to memorize a whole new set of scales, simply
start on the sixth degree of the Major scale, play the notes of that major
scale from the 6th degree to the 6th an octave higher, and you’ve got a
natural minor scale.
The Harmonic Minor Scale
This is the minor scale which gets the most use. The harmonic minor
scale is a slightly altered natural minor scale. The seventh degree is
raised one half step.
The harmonic minor scale gets its name from how it’s used. The
harmonic minor scale is used in order to get the harmony correct when
using chords.
When constructing chords (which are harmony—two or more notes at
once), in order for the chord progressions to sound right to our ears, we
need a half step between the 7th and 8th degree of the scale, and that’s
what the harmonic minor scale does.
This seventh degree, when it’s a half step away from the tonic, is called a
leading tone. It’s called a leading tone because it leads our ear to the
tonic. Try this: play a major scale and stop on the seventh degree. It feels
unresolved, unfinished, and leaves us slightly unsettled.
