The Minor Scale on Piano
Following our post on the Major Scale on Piano, it is important to give just as much attention to the other kind of scale that is used to write music – The Minor Scale on Piano.
Over time, two main scales have survived the centuries – the major and minor scale. Although music can be written in other keys as well, these are far and away the main ones.
Read on to learn about the minor scale and how it’s used in piano music, then book a trial piano lesson at our local music school near Brookline.
Why use the Minor Scale?
In simplest terms, music written in minor keys evoke feelings of sadness and melancholy, while music written in major keys evokes feelings of happiness and excitement.
Of course, music can convey more emotions than just sadness and happiness - so a good metaphor for the difference between the major and minor scale is the difference in the art world between cool colors and warm colors. Cool colors are blues, greens, purples – basically anything with blue in it - while warm colors are oranges, yellows, and reds. Cool colors more relaxed and melancholy, while warm colors are more exciting and vibrant.
Formula of a Minor Scale
For a bit of review, here is the difference between a key and a scale:
A key is a collection of notes that sound good together.
A scale is the exercise of playing those notes in a specific order.
That order begins on the note the scale is named after and ends an octave above. For example, the A minor scale begins on A, and ends on the next A above it, encompassing the notes A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. The E major scale would start on E and end on the next E, encompassing the notes E, F#, G, A, B, C, D, and E.
By convention, scales begin on the note closest to middle C, as those are the notes easiest to reach with your hands when sitting correctly at the piano, but it is still called a scale regardless of where you begin it. (This is the same as with major scales.)
These two (A minor and E minor) are the first scales usually taught when learning the piano. This is because the A minor scale does not include any black keys, and it is easiest to memorize. You’ll then learn scales with an increasing number of black keys. A minor has no black keys, E minor has one black key, B minor has two black keys, F# minor has three black keys, and so on.
The terms scale and key are used somewhat interchangeably, but it is good to know the technical difference. You wouldn’t say a piece or song is written in a minor scale; you would say it is written in a minor key. However, when you solo over a chord progression, you would be soloing using the minor scale.
Below are a few minor scales with fingerings. For the full diagram of all 12 minor scales with harmonic and melodic minor included, use this pdf.
Some examples of songs written in minor are:
All of Me by John Legend
Waltz in A minor by Frederic Chopin
All Along the Watchtower by Bob Dylan
So far, it’s almost identical to the major scale, just with a different starting note. For example, the scale of C major has all white keys starting with C, but the scale of A minor is all the white keys starting with A. So why is it that starting with a different note, but having the same collection of notes, results in a different key?
This is because of which note feels like home in a key. Music is made up of a constant balance of tension and resolution, and no note feels more relaxed and resolved (like you feel at home) than the first note of a key. This is usually done by starting and ending the song or piece (and a lot of the phrases in it) with the note that is home. All parts of a song or piece have tension or not based on its relationship to the home note. Therefore, if you decide to write a piece in a minor key, the function of the chords you use will be different than if you choose to write in its relative major, even though the chords you can choose from are the same.
Harmonic and Melodic Minor
Something that makes the minor scale really special is that there are accepted modifications to it that create really interesting sounds when chords in the key are altered by the modifications. There are two commonly accepted modifications – harmonic minor and melodic minor. Harmonic minor is when just the seventh is raised, resulting in the A minor scale becoming A harmonic minor which consists of A, B, C, D, E, F, G#, and A. Melodic minor is when both the sixth and seventh are raised, resulting in the A minor scale becoming A melodic minor which consists of A, B, C, D, E, F#, G#, and A.
Here is A harmonic and melodic minor with fingerings.
Melodic minor is used much less frequently than harmonic minor, because of how interesting harmonic minor is. And because of how frequently the modifications are used, the minor scale without the modifications is referred to as natural minor.
A common cadence (meaning a short 2 or 3 chord progression that ends phrases) in music is the 5 to 1. This means that you take the chord starting on the 5th note of a scale and then play the chord starting on the 1st note of a scale right after. In the key A minor, that would be the E minor chord followed by the A minor chord.
The magic that harmonic minor makes is changing the E chord (which used to be a minor chord) to a major chord by changing the G to a G#, which is a much stronger resolution. Try it yourself! Play the E minor (E, G, B) chord then the A minor (A, C, E) chord, and then the E major (E, G#, B) chord followed by the A minor chord, and hear for yourself how much more satisfying it is. This is why songs and pieces written in harmonic minor are so common. Some examples of songs and pieces written in harmonic minor are:
California Dreamin’ by The Mamas and the Papas
Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits
Greensleeves by unknown, but possibly Henry VIII
Melodic minor is less common. Technically, melodic minor only has the alteration of raising the sixth and seventh step while the melody is ascending and lowers them, so it is identical to natural minor when descending. This is because it is quite satisfying melodically to have the raised steps when ascending back to the tonic (or home of the scale), and equally satisfying to lower them back when descending. Few songs are written in melodic minor – it is more of a temporary modification that melody uses, while the harmony and the song as a whole remain in natural minor. See if you can catch this pattern in some of the examples:
Yesterday by the Beatles
Autumn Leaves by Johnny Mercer and Jacques Prevert
Bourre in E minor by Johann Sebastian Bach
Origins of the minor scale
Just like the major scale, the origins of the minor scale can be traced back to ancient Greece, only because they were the first to actually write it down and classify different scales. The minor scale is based on the Greek Aeolian mode, one of seven modes.
Since we have a record of sheet music from Europe, we can tell that certain modes became more common than others during the Renaissance. And as composers are as human as the rest of us, they had preferences over which modes they liked to use. Over time, as other composers learned from previous composers, and the two modes that survived were named the major and minor scale.
The minor scale’s modifications came into play as European composers began to take inspiration from music from the Middle East and Asia. In fact, if you play through any harmonic minor scale, that last couple notes really remind people of music from that area, and for good reason! The music that is made there uses the harmonic minor almost exclusively, and it has really left an imprint on the region.
Melodic minor is an extension of harmonic minor, and as stated previously, is more of a melodic addition, while the chords and harmonies of the piece or song is in natural minor.
As with the major scale, the true origins are unknown, as music most likely predates even the Homo Sapiens species as a whole. However, we have some history that we can trace, especially the influences from other parts of the world, and see the impact that the minor scale and its modifications has made on the music we hear today.
