Having Major Trouble with Minor? - Cairns' Style - Comfort in Every Bar. Certain in Every Key.

My dear Piano Lovers,

Perhaps you remember my prior blog article about the practice of the G major scale.

G major is a scale with one accidental, in this case “F sharp”. Incidentally, “F sharp” is also the seventh key, or the so-called leading note of G major.

You may have noticed that this “F sharp” is only one half-step away from the “G” where you end up after playing one octave (or more octaves) of G major.

This special sound of a half-step shortly before the end of a major scale is something our musical ears are used to hearing.

Therefore, when we play a minor scale in its natural version, the whole step between the seventh and the eighth key is something we are certainly not familiar with.

In order to remedy this unusual sound, the harmonic version of the minor scale is amended in such a way that the seventh key is raised one half-step.

That means that a white key, for example “G”, is raised to “G sharp”; a raised key, like “F sharp”, is raised for a second time to “F double sharp”; and a lowered key, like “B flat”, is raised to “B”.

However, there is the melodic minor scale to be considered. Well, in addition to the already raised seventh key, the sixth key is now raised too.

Let's take a practical minor scale to clarify this.

The relative minor scale to the already mentioned G major is one minor third, that is three half steps—not counting the starting key—down the keyboard, which leads us to “E”.

In its “natural state”, E minor has only one accidental, and that is the “F sharp” it shares with G major.

So, the keys for E minor natural are: “E”, “F sharp”, “G”, “A”, “B”, “C”, “D”, and “E”.

To create a harmonic E minor scale we have, as already mentioned, to raise the seventh key, so the E minor harmonic scale runs as follows: “E”, “F sharp”, “G”, “A”, “B”, “C”, “D sharp”, and “E”.

Even though no “Mind the gap!” sounds here, you may have observed its existence between “C” (sixth key) and “D sharp” (seventh key), and it is now even bigger and more particular than before.

In order to make this sound more melodious, the sixth key is raised from “C” to “C sharp”.

Thus, the keys of E minor melodic run as follows: “E”, “F sharp”, “G”, “A”, “B”, “C sharp”, “D sharp”, and “E”.

In case you decide to take an exam at Trinity College or with ABRSM, you might be asked to play the E minor melodic scale—or any melodic minor scale—melodious while ascending and natural while descending.

I must admit that I am not sure what the reason for this tactic is.

As natural minor scales are usually not part of the examination, it might be just the wish to test the candidate's knowledge of the natural version of the minor key by having it played on the way down a melodic minor scale. But that is pure guesswork on my part.

No guesswork, however, is that the Visual KeyScales I provide on this website will most certainly take care of that and provide you with a natural way down for the melodic version of any minor scale.