MUSIC THEORY – Today we will continue to build harmonic minor scales. Mastering scales, mostly major and minor, is a very important skill for anyone who wants to produce tracks and makes a huge difference in the quality of your art.
If you’re not comfortable with harmonic minor scales, I recommend you to check the previous lessons and practice, little by little.
Let’s start with a major scale and then we’ll build its natural and harmonic minor scales. This is a good way to get familiar with this subject.
Exercise 1: D Major scale
I hope you’ve been practicing major scales. If you already know how to play it, congratulations. If not, don’t worry. Just check our previous lessons and practice.
So, D Major has a sharp key signature, with 2 sharps, as shown below:
In the keyboard diagram:
The next step is to find its relative natural minor scale, which you can find by lowering the tonic 3 half-steps: B. Then, B is the relative minor scale of D. Remember, both scales share the same key signature, only the tonic will change:
In the keyboard diagram:
Finally, we will build B harmonic minor scale. We do that by going up the 7th degree of B natural minor scale a half-step:
Remember, the accidental on the 7th degree is not a part of the key signature.
In the keyboard diagram:
Notice that if you’re familiar with major scales, you will easily build any natural or harmonic minor scale!
Exercise 2: Bb Major scale
Bb Major has a flat key signature, with 2 flats, as shown below:
Or in the keyboard diagram:
Step 2 is to find Bb Major’s relative minor scale. It might be easier now: 3 half-steps down Bb will be G. So, G natural minor is the relative of Bb major scale:
And in the keyboard diagram:
Step 3 is just to raise G natural minor’s 7th degree a half-step:
In the keyboard diagram:
Now, try yourself to build the following harmonic minor scales: F# harmonic minor and C harmonic minor. This is your homework and we will check those scales in the next lesson. We also will learn about melodic minor scales.
Happy productions!