THE MINOR SCALE.
There are two forms of minor scales, harmonic and melodic, both differing in construction from the major form.
The minor key having no sharps or flats in the signature is a. Starting at a and sounding the seven white keys in order to the right produces a form of scale with whole steps between 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 4 and 5, 6 and 7, 7 and 8, and half steps between 2 and 3 and between 5 and 6. This scale is unsatisfactory to the ear as its subtonic is not a leading tone. The effect of a leading tone should be urgent, restless, and demand its tonic in order to obtain a restful effect. This urgent effect can only be obtained by the subtonic being one half step below the tonic. This may be obtained by simply raising the seventh one semi-tone in the above scale formation and thus is produced the so-called harmonic minor scale.
The symbols for raising a note are the sharp (#), the double sharp (x), and the cancel (⊄) (also called natural) when placed before a note that has been previously affected by a flat. The symbols for lowering a note are the flat (b), the double flat (bb), and the cancel when placed before a note that has been previously affected by a sharp. By these statements it can be seen that the cancel (⊄) is both a lowering and a raising symbol. The cancel lowers a tone when it cancels a sharp and raises a tone when it cancels a flat.
The harmonic minor scale is formed by whole steps between 1 and 2,—3 and 4,—4 and 5,—half steps between 2 and 3,—5 and 6,—7 and 8, and an interval of one and one-half steps (called an augmented step) between 6 and 7. In demonstrating the minor keys, a curved line will be used to connect those figures representing tones one half step apart and a bracket to connect those figures representing tones an augmented step apart.
The key of a minor (harmonic form) is as follows:—
a b c d e f g# a
1 2 3∼4 5∼6∪7∼ 8
The student will notice that this scale has one sharp (g). Nevertheless, the a minor is the minor key which has neither sharps nor flats in its signature. The raised seventh of all minor keys is never present in the signature, but appears as accidental.
When a sharp, double sharp, flat, double flat or cancel, which is not present in the signature, is placed before a note, it is called an accidental. If the raised seventh were present in the signature, uniform signatures in the minor would be impossible. It may also be remarked here that the seventh is not always raised during the course of a composition and is necessarily raised only when the composer desires the listener's ear to come at rest on the tonic, in which case the tonic must be preceded by the raised seventh, if the subtonic precedes the tonic in the melody or harmony.
The same rules (pages 13 and 15) used in the major for finding the key having the next number of sharps and the key having the next number of flats are applicable in the minor. The order of the letters in both the sharp and flat signatures is the same in the minor as in the major.
A minor has no sharps, the fifth of a is e and has one sharp (f):—
e f# g a b c d# e
1 2∼3 4 5∼6∪7∼8
The fifth of e is b and has two sharps (f and c):—
b c# d e f# g a# b
1 2∼3 4 5∼6∪7∼8
The fifth of b is f# and has three sharps (f, c and g):—
f# g# a b c# d e# f#
1 2∼3 4 5∼6∪7∼8
The fifth of f# is c# and has four sharps (f, c, g and d):—
c# d# e f# g# a b# c#
1 2∼3 4 5∼6∪7∼8
The fifth of c# is g# and has five sharps (f, c, g, d and a):—
g# a# b c# d# e fx g#
1 2∼3 4 5∼6∪7∼8
The student will notice that in this key, f is double sharped. F is sharped in the signature, but because the subtonic requires raising, f demands a double sharp.
The fifth of g# is d# and has six sharps (f, c, g, d, a and e):—
d# e# f# g# a# b cx d#
1 2∼3 4 5∼6∪7∼8
The fifth of d# is a# and has seven sharps (f, c, g, d, a, e and b):—
a# b# c# d# e# f# gx a#
1 2∼ 3 4 5∼6∪7 ∼8
The minor keys having more than seven sharps should be found by the student and submitted to the teacher for correction. For the sake of brevity, they are not given here, but the student should be thoroughly capable, by this time, of finding them all.
A minor has no flats, the fourth of a is d and has one flat (b):—
d e f g a bb c# d
1 2∼3 4 5∼6∪7∼8
The fourth of d is g and has two flats (b and e):—
g a bb c d eb f# g
1 2∼3 4 5∼6∪7∼8
The fourth of g is c and has three flats (b, e and a):—
c d eb f g ab b⊄ c
1 2∼3 4 5∼6∪7∼8
The student will notice a contradiction in the above scale; it is stated that c has three flats and in the example, b is cancelled. This cancel, however, appears as accidental (the raised seventh) and must be a flat in the signature.
The fourth of c is f and has four flats (b, e, a and d):—
f g ab bb c db e⊄ f
1 2∼3 4 5∼6∪7∼8
The fourth of f is bb and has five flats (b, e, a, d and g):—
bb c db eb f gb a⊄ bb
1 2∼3 4 5∼ 6∪7∼8
The fourth of bb is eb and has six flats (b, e, a, d, g and c):—
eb f gb ab bb cb d⊄ eb
1 2∼3 4 5∼6∪7∼8
The fourth of eb is ab and has seven flats (b, e, a, d, g, c and f):—
ab bb cb db eb fb g⊄ ab
1 2∼ 3 4 5∼6∪7∼ 8
The student should find the minor keys having more than seven flats.
The harmonic minor scale is awkward in formation on account of the augmented second step between steps six and seven. All augmented intervals sound harsh and are difficult to sing tunefully. For this reason, another form of minor scale is sometimes used which eliminates the augmented second step. This form is called melodic minor and is used, as its name implies, only for melodic purposes. It defies harmonization for the obvious reason that its ascending form differs from its descending form.
The melodic minor scale has the sixth as well as the seventh raised by accidental in ascending, but in descending, both the sixth and seventh are restored. The ascending form has whole steps between 1 and 2,—3 and 4,—4 and 5,—5 and 6,—6 and 7, and half steps between 2 and 3 and between 7 and 8. The descending form has its half steps between 6 and 5 and between 3 and 2. Notice that the descending form is as its signature dictates.
raised raised
Ascending: —1 2∼3 4 5 6 7∼ 8
Descending:—8 7 6∼5 4 3∼2 1
The ascending form of the melodic minor is nearly the same as the major scale, and for this reason it is best not to retain the raised sixth and seventh in descending. The subtonic in a descending scale does not lead (progress) to the tonic and therefore need not necessarily be situated one half step below the tonic.
Any minor key is called the relative of the major key having the same signature; therefore, the relative minor of C major is a[C] as they both have neither sharps nor flats.
Rule 5. The Relative Minor is found on the Sixth of the Major Scale.
Rule 6. The Relative Major is found on the Third of the Minor Scale.
Some writers have called the relative minor parallel minor, using relative and parallel synonymously. This is a usage to be regretted as it causes considerable confusion. By most writers, the parallel minor is treated as the scale commencing on the same key-note as the major and will thus be treated in this book, therefore:—
the relative minor of C is a;
the parallel minor of C is c.
The parallel minor scale has three more flats or three less sharps in its signature than the major scale. In other words, by lowering steps 3, 6 and 7 of the major scale one semi-tone, the signature of the parallel minor is obtained.
The notation in the treble clef of all the minor scales (harmonic and melodic) follows:—
| Scale of a Harmonic |  |
| Scale of a Melodic [[Midi]] [[audio/mpeg]] [[XML]] | |
| Scale of e Harmonic |  |
| Scale of e Melodic [[Midi]] [[audio/mpeg]] [[XML]] | |
| Scale of b Harmonic |  |
| Scale of b Melodic [[Midi]] [[audio/mpeg]] [[XML]] | |
| Scale of f# Harmonic |  |
| Scale of f# Melodic [[Midi]] [[audio/mpeg]] [[XML]] |
| Scale of c# Harmonic |  |
| Scale of c# Melodic [[Midi]] [[audio/mpeg]] [[XML]] | |
| Scale of g# Harmonic |  |
| Scale of g# Melodic [[Midi]] [[audio/mpeg]] [[XML]] | |
| Scale of d# Harmonic |  |
| Scale of d# Melodic [[Midi]] [[audio/mpeg]] [[XML]] | |
| Scale of a# Harmonic |  |
| Scale of a# Melodic [[Midi]] [[audio/mpeg]] [[XML]] | |
| Scale of d Harmonic |  |
| Scale of d Melodic [[Midi]] [[audio/mpeg]] [[XML]] | |
| Scale of g Harmonic |  |
| Scale of g Melodic [[Midi]] [[audio/mpeg]] [[XML]] | |
| Scale of c Harmonic |  |
| Scale of c Melodic [[Midi]] [[audio/mpeg]] [[XML]] | |
| Scale of f Harmonic |  |
| Scale of f Melodic [[Midi]] [[audio/mpeg]] [[XML]] | |
| Scale of bb Harmonic |  |
| Scale of bb Melodic [[Midi]] [[audio/mpeg]] [[XML]] | |
| Scale of eb Harmonic |  |
| Scale of eb Melodic [[Midi]] [[audio/mpeg]] [[XML]] | |
| Scale of ab Harmonic |  |
| Scale of ab Melodic [[Midi]] [[audio/mpeg]] [[XML]] |