> **From theory:** the pattern lives on [/theory/western/#scales](/theory/western/#scales). The lowered 3rd was just used to build a [minor chord](building-chords.md).

# The minor scale

> Interactive page: [`minor-scale.html`](minor-scale.html). The **Hear** buttons play each scale.

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 the 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. 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 or less sunny live on it. The opening **Hear** buttons play the A minor scale and the C minor scale.

## Same keys, a new home

Play C major, then start those same white keys on A. **Am** was degree **6**, notes A C E. This is that chord opened into the row: **A B C D E F G A**. Nothing was added. A minor is the **relative minor** of C. Every major scale has one: count to 6.

In C major the first half step waits until E–F, between degrees 3 and 4. From A it arrives between B and C, degrees 2 and 3. A major 3rd above A would be C♯. The scale has C. That is the lowered 3rd again. The pattern is **W–H–W–W–H–W–W**.

Right hand, thumb on A: **1 2 3**, thumb under onto D, then **2 3 4 5**. Left hand, pinky on A: **5 4 3 2 1**, then finger 3 crosses onto F.

## Same home, three notes lowered

C minor keeps C as home and lowers degrees **3, 6, and 7**: C D **E♭** F G **A♭** **B♭** C. The lowered 3rd is the E♭ from the C minor chord. Learn A minor first. It needs no black keys.

## Play A before the variants

Right hand, then left, metronome near 60. Then play **A C E** and notice those are degrees 1, 3, and 5 of this scale.

Then E, D, G, and C minor. Harmonic and melodic minor, which raise the 7th, wait on [Beyond the major scale](beyond-scales.md).

Next: the [scales lab](scales-lab.md).