These useful accidentals are featured in the melodic minor and harmonic minor scales.Ĭomparing Major and Minor Scale Patterns Figure \(\PageIndex\). In fact, certain strategic accidentals are very useful in helping establish a strong tonal center in a minor key. They have different tonal centers, and each will feature melodies, harmonies, and chord progressions built around their (different) tonal centers. Even though they have the same key signature, a minor key and its relative major sound very different. This melodic minor scale is based on the natural minor scale with the same key / tonic note - G natural minor scale. A minor key is called the relative minor of the major key that has the same key signature. The G-sharp melodic minor scale has 5 sharps, 1 double-sharp. To hear some simple examples in both major and minor keys, see Major Keys and Scales.Įach minor key shares a key signature with a major key. Music that is in a minor key is sometimes described as sounding more solemn, sad, mysterious, or ominous than music that is in a major key. So you can't, for example, transpose a piece from C major to D minor (or even to C minor) without changing it a great deal. Music in minor keys has a different sound and emotional feel, and develops differently harmonically. The main difference to the major scale is that it contains the minor third and not the major third. In this article you will get to know the three minor scales: natural minor, harmonic minor and melodic minor. Besides the major scale, which you have already got to know, there is also the minor scale. But music that is in D minor will have a different quality, because the notes in the minor scale follow a different pattern and so have different relationships with each other. Minor scale: Natural, harmonic and melodic. (See Beginning Harmonic Analysis for more on this.) So music that is in, for example, C major, will not sound significantly different from music that is in, say, D major.
Scales you can use in the real world, created by a human guitarist.
A SHARP MELODIC MINOR SCALES FREE
In each major scale, however, the notes are arranged in the same major scale pattern and build the same types of chords that have the same relationships with each other. Free Guitar Scale Charts And Fingering Diagrams. Each major key uses a different set of notes (its major scale).