You’ve taken lessons, and you understand and can play all those major scales. You give a huge sigh of relief and then you find out that you have to learn about something called minor scales. You groan and then throw your hands up in despair. Well, I am here to help make your life a little bit easier.
There are actually two different schools of thought in regards to the types of minor scales, and how they are presented, one being the Relative Minor Scale, and the other method is the Parallel Minor Scale. In this article, we will discuss the Relative Minor Scale and save the discussion of the Parallel Minor scale for another article. Within each of these methods, there are three different forms which are the Natural minor scale, the Melodic minor scale and the Harmonic minor scale.
The Relative Minor Natural Minor Form Scale
The Relative Minor scale, Natural Minor form, always begins on the 6th tone of the major scale and then uses the key signature of the major scale. Let me give you an example of how this works. Take the C major scale, which has no sharps or flats:
C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 the numbers stand for each tone of the scale
By definition, I will start the Relative Minor scale, Natural form on the 6th tone, which is A. It will then look as follows:
A B C D E F G A
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
This is Am scale, with the small m standing for minor and the key signature also with no sharps or flats.
The Relative Minor Harmonic Minor Form Scale
The Relative Minor scale, Harmonic Minor form, always begins on the 6th tone of the major scale and then uses the key signature of the major scale and also raises the 7th tone of the Relative Minor Scale a half step. Let me give you an example of how this works. Take the C major scale, which has no sharps or flats:
C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
By definition, I will start the Relative Minor scale, Harmonic form on the 6th tone, which is A, and then raise the 7th tone a half step. It will then look as follows:
A B C D E F G# A
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
This is Am scale, with the small m standing for minor and the key signature also with no sharps or flats, and the 7th tone raised a half a step.
The Relative Minor Melodic Minor Form Scale
The Relative Minor scale, Melodic Minor form, always begins on the 6th tone of the major scale and then uses the key signature of the major scale and also raises the 6th and the 7th tone of the Relative Minor Scale a half step when ascending the scale. When coming down the scale, you descend using the Natural minor form. Let me give you an example of how this works. Take the C major scale, which has no sharps or flats:
C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
By definition, I will start the Relative Minor scale, Melodic form on the 6th tone, which is A, and then raise the 6th and the 7th tone a half step. It will then look as follows:
A B C D E F# G# A – ascending form A G F E D C B A – descending form
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This is the Am scale, with the small m standing for minor and the key signature also with no sharps or flats, melodic minor form. Again the melodic form raises the 6th and 7th tones going up the scale and then uses the natural form coming down the scale.
