Natural Minor Scale
Lesson 17 from: Music Theory Essentials: Chords, Scales and ModesTomas George
Natural Minor Scale
Lesson 17 from: Music Theory Essentials: Chords, Scales and ModesTomas George
Lesson Info
17. Natural Minor Scale
Lessons
Scales Introduction
03:08 2Working out a Major Scale
06:45 3Working out a Major Key from a Melody
05:51 4Major Keys and Scales
01:54 5Major Scale on a Score
02:56 6Triads
03:37 7Inversions
03:21 8Working out the Chords in a Major Scale
09:27Different Ways to Write out Chords
04:11 10Working out Major and Minor Triads
07:01 11Diminished and Augmented Triads
05:22 127th Chords
12:16 13Extended Chords
06:34 14Suspended Chords
06:02 15The Circle of 5ths
12:48 16How to Change Key
14:54 17Natural Minor Scale
11:21 18Chords in the Minor Scale
05:59 19Harmonic Minor Scale
07:15 20Melodic Minor Scale
11:12 21Modes
03:54 22Ionian Mode
00:47 23Dorian Mode
03:14 24Phrygian Mode
03:14 25Lydian Mode
01:21 26Mixolydian Mode
02:11 27Aeolian Mode
01:03 28Locrian Mode
03:56 29Section introduction
00:17 30Song Analysis 1 - Capsize
15:25 31Song Analysis 2 - Floating
18:07Lesson Info
Natural Minor Scale
Hello and welcome to this lecture where we're going to be looking at minor keys. So previously, we've had a look at major scales and major keys and now we're going to do the same with minor. So the reason why we haven't really looked at minor scales or keys so far is because I wanted you to understand how the major scale works, how to work out the notes in the major scale and also work out what chords you can use in the major scale before we have a look at the minor scale because they are closely related. They are quite similar. We do have different types of minor scales, but in this lecture, we're just going to have a look at the natural minor scale. So generally speaking, songs in a minor key are sadder sounding than in a major key. Major keys are generally more happy. However, you can make a song in a major key sound sad and you can make a song in a minor key, sound happy. But these are just kind of general rules. You hear people say minor is sad and major is happy when we hear the ...
word minor key most of the time this will be talking about the natural minor key. The other ones are harmonic minor and melodic minor. But the natural one is the most common one. This is the one that's naturally related to the major key. So this is why we call it a natural minor. So there are actually three main ways we can work out the natural minor scale. The easiest way and the way I recommend is first of all, learning how to relate it to the major scale. So every major scale has a related minor, has a natural minor scale that's related to it. So if we have a look at C major, we have the notes CD EFG ABC, let's just write these out on the piano score here. So we have the notes here of C Defgab and C and the way we worked that out was actually by using the pattern, we looked at previously tone tone semitone, tone, tone, tone semitone. So that's how we can work out a major scale. And a natural minor scale actually has the same notes as a major scale, it might sound different. However, they use the same notes. So for example, on a minor scale, we use the same notes as ac major scale. So the way we actually do this is either we count up 6123456. So we count up from CD EFG to A or we count down three so 12 and three including in the first note. So 12 and three and this is how we find a relative minor is either six notes up or three notes down. So it's the same notes. So it would be ABC and then ignore this because this is the uh octave. So, Abc DEFG, so we just need to reorder these. So I'm just going to reorder these. So it goes from A to A OK. So the notes go ABC DEFG A. So it's actually the same notes as C major in a different order. And they're rooting around the A rather than the C, we can also find our natural major as well. So we just need to count up three to find an actual major. So minor to major, count, top three major to minor, count down three. So this is one way we can find the minor scale is just look at the major scale and find out its relative minor. There is another way though to find the minor scale and that is actually altering the major scale just written out c major scale just by using the patterns, tone tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone semitone and also C major. It's just the white notes as well. So it's quite an easy scale to write out. And we can change this into a minor scale just by remembering this little pattern flat in the third flat in the sixth and flat in the seventh. So what I mean is just take it down one semi to, so the 3rd 1 to 3 is this E and we just change it to an E flat. And then the six which is actually an A, so is a, bring it down the semitone to a flat and then B which is the seventh, bring the stones semitone. And here we have c minor scale. So we have CD E flat, FG A flat B flat and C. So we've changed this major scale into a minor scale. We can go the other way around if we want to change a minor scale into a major scale. All we need to do is sharpen the third, sharpen the sixth and sharpen the seventh by one semitone. So we just move this up on semitone, the third, move the sixth up on the semi toone and then the seventh up one semitone. And this will create ac major scope you can see here CD EFG ABC. So all we need to do is flatten the third, 6th and 7th. So this is how we create a minor scale. So this is another way of doing it. Just remember that little pattern to change a major scale to a minor scale flat in the third flat, in the sixth and flat in the seventh. So let's try this in another key. OK. So I've just written out D major. So the notes of D major is DEF sharp, G ABC sharp D and we use the same pattern to change this to a minor scale. All we do is flatten the third. So we flatten this F sharp here to an F. So we turn that into an F and then the seventh is the C#. So we changed this to AC. However, we also need to flatten the six. So we change this B to A B flat. So this D minor actually has a B flat. And the reason it has a B flat is because it's the relative minor of F major. Remember if we're in a minor scale and we just count up three notes, 123 in the scale, we find it's relative major. So this relative major of D minor is F major. That's why it has the B flat because F major has a B flat. So that's the other way of finding a minor scale is just transform a major scale into a minor scale by flattening the third, flattening the sixth and flattening the seventh of the scale. And the other way, the third way of finding out a minor scale is to use this pattern tone, semitone tone tone, semitone tone tone. So that's another pattern. If you want to remember it, you can just work out the notes like we did with the major scale. But with this pattern, actually the same pattern in a different order. The order before was tone tone semitone tone tone tone semitone. So we're just using the same pattern but starting in a different place, but starting back three notes starting on this tone here. So it's tone semitone tone tone semitone tone tone, I don't normally use this pattern, but it's good to know as well if you just want to work out a minor scale. So let's use C minor, for example, let's start with C here and let's write in the next notes. So we need to go up a tone to start with. So a tone from C will give us ad. So let's write in ad here and then up there's a semitone. So we need to go up a semitone now. So a semitone up from D is actually ad flat, then we need to go up a tone from ad flat because remember it's tone semitone tone. So we need to count up two semitones. So from the D flat, 12, so it gives us an F OK, then up from an F is another to, so this will give us a AG OK? Then we need to go up a semitone from G. So this will give us this note here, which is a, a flat. The reason we're using flats rather than sharps is B based on its relative major. So the relative major of C minor is actually an E flat major because remember we just count up three notes. So CD is E flat major. And this obviously uses flats rather than sharps because in the circle of fifths, if you go clockwise up to halfway, we use shops anti clockwise, we use flats. So if we look at the circle of fifths here, the flat is on the left here which is anti clockwise, which uses flats. And the relative minor is the C minor. So that's why we use flats. Just if you're a bit curious while using flats rather than sharps, it's all based on its relative major scale. OK. So going back to this, we have a flat and then we go up one tone and then we have B flat and then we go up another tone again and this will bring us back to sea. So this is the pattern. If you want to work out a minor scale, it's tone semitone tone tone, semitone tone tone, it works in all keys. So this works on whatever note you start on. This is how you can find the minor scale. So let's just go over the three ways again. The first way is to find out the relative minor of a major scale. So we can do this by counting up six notes or down three notes. So let's just say let's just change this back to C major. So if we count up 6123456, we know the relative minor is a minor or we can count down 3123 from the tonic. And that will give us a which is a minor. So these notes will all fit in a minor. Obviously, it'll start and end on the a the other way is to change a major scale into a minor scale. And the way we do this is flatten, the third flatten, the six and flat in the seventh. So this c major scale has become ac minor because now it has an E flat, an a flat and a B flat. And the other way was to use this pattern tone semitone tone tone semitone tone tone, and then we can draw out a natural minor scale. So thank you for watching this lecture all about the natural minor scale. In the next lecture, we're going to have a look at the harmonic minor scale and the melodic minor scale. So thank you again for watching and I'll see you in the next lecture.
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