Lesson 9
The Harmonic Minor Scales
If you take our C-major scale and flatten only the third and sixth note, you get the harmonic minor scale. It's called that because the scale is built on the harmonic progressions normally used in a minor key. (We will talk about keys later in this lesson. Harmonic progression will be discussed in the cource: Basic Harmony.) It differs from the natural minor scale in that the seventh note that was flattened in the natural minor scale is not flatten in the harmonic minor.Two interesting features of the harmonic minor scale is that it has three semitone intervals in it and, consequently, it has an augmented interval (1-1/2 steps, an interval that is a semitone larger the a wholetone interval; it's called an augmented second).
Let's look at the pitches and intervals in the C-harmonic-minor scale:
Pitches:
C-D-Eb-F-G-Ab-B-CNote that the augment interval is between the Ab and B, and the extra half-step interval is between the B and C.
C-harmonic Minor Scale Intervals:
C-D: WholetonePractice creating harmonic minor scales for all 12 pitches in an octave.
D-Eb: Semitone
Eb-F: Wholetone
F-G: Wholetone
G-Ab: Semitone
Ab-B: Augmented (Wholetone+semitone)
B-C: Semitone