Music Theory - Minor Keys
So far we've centered ourselves on the key of C Major and discussed all our chords and theory in terms of the major scale. Let's branch out to the minor scale.
The minor scale actually has 3 common variations: natural, harmonic, and melodic. We will only cover natural for now.
The Natural Minor Scale
The natural minor scale is basically exactly the same as the major scale, except the major 3rd, major 6th, and major 7th are all flattened to minor 3rd, minor 6th, and minor 7th. This changes the whole-half pattern as follows:
| m2 | M2 | m3 | M3 | P4 | d5 | P5 | m6 | M6 | m7 | M7 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Major | x | x | x | x | x | x | |||||
| Minor | x | x | x | x | x | x |
Major: w-w-h-w-w-w-h Minor: w-h-w-w-h-w-w