Dave Plummer Saxophonist

Hi Folks

For all those musicians out there learning their scales, it can be a challenge to work out which minor scale is related to the Major scale.

There are 2 ways to relate them.  You can relate them by starting pitch, so G Major and G minor for example.  This has the same starting note but totally different key signatures.  The other way is to relate them by Key Signature, which makes them more useful when you are woring out what key the piece is in you are trying to play.

Lets take C Major wich has a key signature of 0 Sharps and 0 flats.  To work out the relative Minor, count up 6 notes ( including the Root) and you end up on A.  This is the Relative Natural Minor.  So Starting on A play up to the next A and maintain the key of 0 Sharps and Flats.  This gives you A natural minor.

To make this the harmonic minor, raise the 7th note of this new scale by a semitone or half step (G becomes G#) both up and down the scale.

To take it to the next level and play the melodic minor, raise both the 6th and 7th by a semitone /half step (F becomes F# and G becomes G#) on the way up, but revert back to the natural minor scale on the way down.

So in four easy stages you have played the Major scale and 3 versions of the Minor scale.

Attached is a PDF showing how this works.  Please feel free to download and share.

I hope you found this useful.

Happy Tooting.

Dave

Scales – Major to Minor

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