Natural minor and harmonic minor scales

Music Lesson: Introduction to Natural Minor and Related Scales

Just now I mentioned the Harmonic Minor Scale and that's not the only minor scale around. As you probably know, there are several others, and one of those is called the Natural Minor.

Understanding D Natural Minor

D Natural minor comes from putting together the five-finger position on D minor and the five-finger position on G minor. If you put those together, you get what is sometimes called the Aeolian Mode or the Natural Minor.

Important Notes:

• D natural minor is the same as the scale of F Major, which is the relative major.

Chords in F Major

Let's look at the chords in F major by playing triads up the scale:

• I chord: F
• II chord: G minor
• III chord: A minor
• IV chord: B flat
• V chord: C
• VI chord: D minor
• VII chord: E diminished

You did actually play the E diminished chord in Montuno for Monty when the bridge goes to F. So there we have those chords: F, E diminished, and D minor.

Note: The chords from F major that we've just played are exactly the same as those you would have if you were thinking of it in D minor, since D natural minor and F major have the same notes.

Comparing Natural Minor with Harmonic Minor

When comparing the Natural minor with Harmonic minor, you can see that the only difference is the C#.

• This is why the Harmonic minor scale is good to play over the A chord because it contains a C#.
• However, it could work over the rest of the chords as well.

If you wanted to play the whole solo using Harmonic Minor, it would sound a bit more exotic. But a C# doesn't necessarily get in the way unless you play it with the D minor chord at the same time.

Practical Application

When you have a go at your solo in Montuno for Monty, try those scales out to see how they sound, either with the left hand given or with chords in the left hand.

Exploring Melodic Minor

In classical music, you may have learned about another scale, the Melodic Minor. This has two different forms:

• The ascending form: goes up like D major but with an F natural
• The descending form: comes down like the natural minor

In jazz, we don't separate these two scales; instead, we separate them into ascending and descending forms. The melodic minor in jazz always has B natural and C#.

Note: We don't really need to play that melodic minor scale right now, as it won't sound very good in this tune due to the B natural clashing with G minor.

Upcoming Exercise: Natural Minor Workout

The next tune, Natural Minor Workout, really goes to town on these chords. We will explore them not just in the context of one chord per scale, but like we did with Major Triad Workout.

We will play each natural minor scale over two minor chords (one to four) again, like we did in Montuno for Monty. You have:

• D minor to G minor, and you can play that natural minor scale on D, which fits both chords.

This time, we're going to start on A minor. We will use the same inversion configuration:

• Start on root position on the one
• Then play second inversion on the first

Finding Your Natural Minors

How are you going to find your natural minors? Here are two methods I could suggest:

1. Relative Major Method:

   • For G minor, if you play the notes of B flat major (the relative major, minor third up), that will give you the right notes starting on G. Since B flat major has two flats, you need two flats in your minor scale.

2. Chord Root Method:

   • Think of G minor as a minor scale. All you need to know is it has a flattened third, flattened sixth, and flattened seventh. The important note here is E flat.
   • If you play E natural, it's no longer the natural minor.

Improvisation Exercise

This is also an exercise in improvising with natural minors. I will give you some sample phrases for eight bars over each chord pair, and then I'd like you to have a go yourself.

• I'll leave a gap for you to continue playing the left-hand chords.
• Sync your chords up with mine and try to play four two-bar phrases in the eight-bar gap that will be there for every key.

Remember: The keys go down in tones, so you will end up right down here!