Minor scales chart: natural, harmonic and melodic minor

Natural minor

The natural minor scale is the diatonic Aeolian mode. It can be played on the white keys of the piano as A–B–C–D–E–F–G. Because this A minor scale shares a key signature with the C major scale, the two are considered relatives. The major scale sits a third above its relative minor.

The major and natural minor scales have the same collection of intervals: two semitones and five whole tones. Beginning in the 17th century, they were the two dominant modes of tonal music.

The resulting harmonies are quite different from the major scale. The tonic chord (A–C–E) is minor, as are the subdominant (D–F–A) and dominant chords (E–G–B). The absence of the leading tone made composing a satisfactory cadence difficult. This problem gave rise to the two common variations of the natural minor scale.

The term "natural minor" was not in common use until the twentieth century.

Harmonic minor

The first solution to the minor scale's missing leading tone was to simply restore it. This modification became known as the harmonic minor scale. The configuration creates an augmented second between the sixth and seventh scale degrees. Because of the melodic awkwardness of this interval, the harmonic minor scale prompted further refinement.

Harmonic minor scales are common in classical music. They can be found in works like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16. Ludwig van Beethoven often relied on the upper tetrachord of the harmonic minor scale to create tonal ambiguity and maximize chromaticism in later works like the Grosse Fuge. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov considered the harmonic minor scale as part of the "basis of harmony". He also introduced the term "harmonic major scale" for a major scale with a lowered sixth.

Worcester Cathedral rings its "Harmonic Minor 10" on solemn occasions like Good Friday and Armistice Day. The church bells are half-muffled and play a pattern based on a descending minor scale.

Spirituals like "Go Down Moses" and "Soon I Will Be Done" employ the harmonic minor scale. In popular music, shredders like Yngwie Malmsteen made liberal use of harmonic minor scales as they expanded the vernacular of the guitar solo beyond the blues scale. Heavy metal guitarists often orient their use of the harmonic minor scale around the dominant, which introduces a Phrygian flavor to their melodies.

The Hungarian minor scale is a harmonic minor scale with a raised 4th degree. The Neapolitan minor scale is a harmonic minor scale with a lowered second scale degree.

Melodic minor

Given the awkwardness of the harmonic minor's augmented second, composers developed another version of the scale known as the melodic minor. When played upwards, both the sixth and seventh scale degrees appear as they do in the major scale. The only lowered scale degree is the third, which ameliorates voice leading. During a descent, the sixth and seventh scale degrees are lowered to their positions in the natural minor scale.

Consistently raising and lowering the sixth and seventh scale degrees requires copious accidentals. The primary minor key signature prevails, and the note alterations are so commonplace that they are viewed as diatonic.

The ascending melodic minor scale is sometimes referred to as a "jazz minor scale".

Elton John uses a melodic minor scale in "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word".

The harmonic minor scale (or Aeolian ♮7 scale) is a musical scale derived from the natural minor scale, with the minor seventh degree raised by one semitone to a major seventh, creating an augmented second between the sixth and seventh degrees.

While it evolved primarily as a basis for chords, the harmonic minor with its augmented second is sometimes used melodically. Instances can be found in Mozart, Beethoven (for example, the finale of his String Quartet No. 14), and Schubert (for example, in the first movement of the Death and the Maiden Quartet). In this role, it is used while descending far more often than while ascending. A familiar example of the descending scale is heard in a ring of bells. A ring of twelve is sometimes augmented with a 5♯ and 6♭ to make a 10 note harmonic minor scale from bell 2 to bell 11 (for example, Worcester Cathedral).

In popular music, examples of songs in harmonic minor include Katy B's "Easy Please Me", Bobby Brown's "My Prerogative", and Jazmine Sullivan's "Bust Your Windows". The scale also had a notable influence on heavy metal, spawning a sub-genre known as neoclassical metal, with guitarists such as Chuck Schuldiner, Yngwie Malmsteen, Ritchie Blackmore, and Randy Rhoads employing it in their music.

In music theory, relative keys are the major and minor scales that have the same key signatures (enharmonically equivalent), meaning that they share all of the same notes but are arranged in a different order of whole steps and half steps. A pair of major and minor scales sharing the same key signature are said to be in a relative relationship. The relative minor of a particular major key, or the relative major of a minor key, is the key which has the same key signature but a different tonic. (This is as opposed to parallel minor or major, which shares the same tonic.)

For example, F major and D minor both have one flat in their key signature: B♭. Therefore, D minor is the relative minor of F major, and conversely F major is the relative major of D minor. The tonic of the relative minor is the sixth scale degree of the major scale, while the tonic of the relative major is the third scale degree of the minor scale. The minor key starts three semitones below its relative major; for example, A minor is three semitones below its relative, C major.

The relative relationship may be visualized through the circle of fifths.

Relative keys are a type of closely related keys, the keys between which most modulations occur, because they differ by no more than one accidental. Relative keys are the most closely related, as they share exactly the same notes.

The major key and the minor key also share the same set of chords. In every major key, the triad built on the first degree of the scale is major, the second and third are minor, the fourth and fifth are major, the sixth is minor, and the seventh is diminished. In the relative minor, the same triads pertain. Because of this, it can occasionally be difficult to determine whether a particular piece of music is in a major key or its relative minor.