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

Relative Minor/Major

If you observed astutely, the whole-half pattern is exactly the same; it just starts on a different note:

 Major: w-w-h-w-w-w-h w-w-h-w-w-w-h
 Minor:           w-h-w-w-h-w-w

So if you take any major key and play a scale starting on the sixth note, you have a natural minor scale. For the key of C Major, the sixth note is A. A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A is the A Minor scale.

When two scales share the exact same set of notes, they are called relatives. For any major scale, there is a relative minor and vice versa. A Minor is the relative minor of C Major.