Minor Scales On The Piano – 3 Kinds
Minor Scales On The Piano – 3 Kinds
Good morning. This is Duane. Today I’d like to talk about the three kinds of minor scales on the piano and how they affect songs that are written in minor keys. There are three kinds of minor scales. One is called the natural minor [piano playing], which is just the notes of the relative major. For example, the key of C, as you know, the C scale goes like that. [Piano Playing] The relative minor to the key of C is the key of A minor. Just go down a step and a half to find the relative minor key, or I can go up six scale notes and that’s the relative minor key.
Every relative minor key can be found by going down a step and a half from the major key or going up six scale notes. For example, what’s the relative minor key to the key of D major? Here’s the key of D major. [Piano Playing] A step and a half below that is B, right? The key of B minor is relative to D major and has exactly the same notes.
The relative minor key always shares the same notes as the major key. Let’s come back to the key of A minor. [Piano Playing] That’s the relative minor. That’s the natural minor scale. Now, there are two other kinds of scales that you need to know about. One is called the harmonic minor scale. In the harmonic minor scale, we raise the seventh a half step. One, two, three, four, five, six, and instead of playing the seventh, we raise it a half step. So it’s [piano playing]. There is that step and a half here. [Piano Playing] It’s kind of a snake charmer kind of sound.
That’s a harmonic minor. Here’s the melodic minor. [Piano Playing] The melodic minor raises the sixth and seventh on the way up and then lowers them on the way down. Now, let me tell you the melodic minor scale is not used very much in the western hemisphere. You don’t really need to think about it. It’s not going to come up very much. It’s used basically in melodies, not harmony so much.
You do need to know about the harmonic minor scale with a raised seventh because that changes the feel of a song. I’m going to play a song in A minor based on the natural minor scale. In other words, it doesn’t have that raised seventh. Listen. [Piano Playing] It has that mystical feeling because the five chord is minor. Now listen to another song that’s based on the harmonic minor scale. In other words, a raised seventh. Listen. [Piano Playing] Can you hear the difference?
It’s that raised seventh that makes the difference. As you know, the primary chords in any key are one, four, and five. In A minor, the one chord is the A minor chord. The four chord is D minor. The five chord is E minor. That’s in the natural minor mode of the A minor scale. However, in the harmonic mode, the one chord is there, and the four chord is there still, but the five chord is what? Is major isn’t it?
Why is that? Because of that raised seventh. [Piano Playing] The seventh scale is raised. That means the five chord is major instead of minor. It changes the feeling entirely, doesn’t it? Let me play the first song, and I’ll make that major in the five chord. [Piano Playing] See, it just ruins the song, doesn’t it? That’s the difference between the natural minor and the harmonic minor. The natural minor has a one, four, and five chord that’s minor. The harmonic minor key has the one chord and four chord are minor, but the five chord is major, and that’s the difference. It makes all the difference in the world sound wise, doesn’t it?
Okay. That’s it for today. Come back tomorrow, and we’ll have another little piano tip for you. If you haven’t signed up for my newsletter at www.playpiano.com, please come over and sign up for it because there is lots of good stuff there. Tons of stuff you need to know about piano playing. I teach a tip daily and sometimes more. We’ll see you there. Bye-bye for now.