Music Theory from ZeroMusic Theory
Chapter 32About 2 minAll chapters

There are three minor scales

Natural, harmonic and melodic. The only difference is whether the sixth and seventh notes get raised.

Chapter 5 taught one minor scale. There are actually three. The extras exist not for tidiness but to create a pull back home in a minor key.

In chapter 5, walking up the white keys from A gave the A minor scale. That is the basic form — and on its own it causes a problem.

Why do we need three?

Because the basic form makes it hard to sound finished in a minor key. Chapter 12 said V pulls towards I, but in a minor key the V is Em — a minor chord, with a weak pull. Raising the seventh note by a semitone restores that force, and that is the second scale.

Raise the seventh and the pull home appears.

Natural minor (the basic form)

The one from chapter 5: white keys from A upwards. It is wistful and perfectly usable, but the sense of finishing is weak.

A natural minor. White keys only — the same scale as chapter 5.Buttons and keys in the diagrams play sound. Check your volume first.

Harmonic minor (seventh raised)

Only the seventh note, G, is raised to G♯ — that is the orange key. That one note turns the Em chord into E major, which then pulls hard towards Am.

Only the seventh is raised. The orange key is the raised note, G♯.Buttons and keys in the diagrams play sound. Check your volume first.

That G♯ is the same note borrowed to build E7 back in chapter 16. What we called "borrowing one note from outside the key" is, seen from the scale's side, the harmonic minor. Different name, identical pitches.

  • Em, unchanged (natural)

    Am | Dm | Em | Am

  • E7 (seventh raised)

    Am | Dm | E7 | Am

Only the third chord changes, between Em and E7. Compare how convincingly each returns to Am.Buttons and keys in the diagrams play sound. Check your volume first.
In plain wordsLeading note

The note a semitone below home. Being a semitone away, it strains towards home, which is what creates a sense of ending. Harmonic minor raises the seventh precisely to create it.

Melodic minor (sixth raised too)

Harmonic minor has a drawback: the gap between the sixth (F) and the raised seventh (G♯) is three semitones, which is awkward to sing. Raising the sixth as well evens that out, and that is the melodic minor.

Both the sixth and the seventh are raised, which smooths out the climb.Buttons and keys in the diagrams play sound. Check your volume first.

As the name says, it is for moving a melody upwards. Coming back down, players usually revert to the white keys, which is why it is sometimes described as a scale with different notes going up and coming down.

Generate over a minor progression with the seventh raised. Notice how differently it settles when it returns to Am.

Generate over Am, Dm, E7, Am
The one thing to remember

Raise the seventh note a semitone and a minor key gains its pull home. That is the whole difference.

Quick review

Everything here is answerable from this chapter. Pick an option and the answer appears straight away.

  1. Question 1

    What does harmonic minor change about the basic form?

  2. Question 2

    With the seventh raised, what happens to the V chord?

Browse chord progressions