The minor scale
Scales & modes: Major scale · How chords are built · Minor scale · Scales lab · Modes · Modes lab · Beyond the major scale · Beyond the major scale lab · Circle of fifths
On the last page, a minor chord was one edit. C E G became C E♭ G, and only the 3rd moved. That same edit is already inside C major: D F A is Dm, E G B is Em, and A C E is Am. You can play those chords without leaving the major scale, and without a new fingering. That page was notes sounding together, and which chord comes next in a song.
A minor scale is the whole row, and your hand walks it one note at a time. That is a different job, which is why it has this page. Two questions follow. Same keys, a new home: A B C D E F G A is C major started on A. A was already degree 6, the Am chord, opened into a line you can play up and down. Same home, three notes lowered: C minor keeps C and lowers 3, 6, and 7 — E♭, A♭, and B♭ — so the rest of the row agrees with the C minor chord. The last page taught the dark note. This page teaches the dark key: a home note, seven steps, and a fingering. Songs that feel serious, sad, or simply less sunny live on it.
Same keys, a new home
Play C major, then start those same white keys on A. Am was degree 6, notes A, C, and E. This is that chord opened into the row.
Listen for the same notes in a different order. C major climbs C D E F G A B C. A minor climbs A B C D E F G A. Nothing was added and nothing was removed. A is degree 6, so A minor is called the relative minor of C. Every major scale has one: count to 6, and that note is the home of the relative minor. The modes page, later, does this for every degree, not only the 6th.
The pattern, once you have heard it, is W–H–W–W–H–W–W. The difference from major is where the first half step sits. In C major the first half step waited until E–F, between degrees 3 and 4. From A, the half step arrives immediately, between B and C — degrees 2 and 3. A major 3rd above A would be C♯. The scale has C, one key lower. That is the same lowered 3rd that turned a major chord into a minor one.
| From A | Step | Land on |
|---|---|---|
| start, degree 1 | — | A |
| skip one key | W | B |
| the next key, no black key between | H | C — the lowered 3rd |
| skip one key | W | D |
| skip one key | W | E |
| the next key | H | F |
| skip one key | W | G |
| skip one key | W | A |
Right hand, thumb on A, then the same tuck you used in C major: 1 on A, 2 on B, 3 on C, thumb under onto D, then 2, 3, 4, 5 up to the next A. Left hand, pinky on A: 5, 4, 3, 2, thumb on E, then finger 3 crosses over onto F.
Same home, three notes lowered
There is a second way, and it answers a different question: what is the minor scale of C, not of A? Keep the home note. Lower degrees 3, 6, and 7 of the major scale you know.
C major is C D E F G A B C. C minor is C D E♭ F G A♭ B♭ C. The lowered 3rd is the E♭ from the C minor chord. The 6th and 7th come down with it, so the rest of the scale agrees with that chord.
A minor and C minor are the same pattern. One keeps C major's notes and moves home to A. The other keeps C as home and moves three notes down a key. Learn A first. It needs no black keys. C minor's three flats can wait.
Play A before the variants
- Right hand, A to A, saying the letters. Metronome near 60. The tuck is after C.
- Left hand alone, pinky on A up to the next A.
- Then the chord you already know, A C E, and notice those three notes are degrees 1, 3, and 5 of this scale.
When A is easy, the usual order is E, D, G, then C minor. They share fingerings with the majors you are learning. Black-key minors (F♯, C♯, G♯, E♭, B♭) come last.
Two cousins raise the 7th so the scale pulls home again, the way B wanted to rise to C. They are harmonic minor and melodic minor, and they wait on Beyond the major scale. The next page is the scales lab, which plays this scale from any key with the finger numbers on the keys.