Compositional Elements: - Natural Minor - The Major Scale's Inverted Alter Ego

Hi guys,

Last time we took a look at the major scale formula. To recap, the major scale formula is as follows:

Whole Step, Whole Step, Half Step, Whole Step, Whole Step, Whole Step, Half Step

This time we are going to look at the Natural Minor Scale formula.

What is the natural minor scale?

The natural minor scale is a scale that is built from the sixth note of the major scale. (It's modal name is Aeolian. More on that when we look at modes.)

By centering the tonality of our scale around the sixth note of the major scale, instead of the first note of the major scale, we can shift our series of whole steps and half steps. So let's start our scale from the sixth note of the major scale and see what happens:

C major scale =  C D E F G A B C

We can see that in the key of C major, A is the sixth note in the scale. 

A natural minor scale = A B C D E F G A

This gives us the resulting natural minor scale formula:

Whole Step, Half Step Whole Step, Whole Step, Half Step ,Whole Step, Whole Step

Although this sequence of notes comes straight from the major scale, the resulting scale is minor by nature. This resulting natural minor scale is said to be "relative" to the major scale from which it comes and is often called "relative minor". To hear the difference, play the scale over a C major chord. You will hear that it has a cheerful uplifting quality. Now play the scale over an A minor chord. The cheerfulness has turned to sorrow.

Let's compare the A natural minor scale to it's 'parallel' A major scale.

A major scale = A B C# D E F# G# A

A natural minor = A B C D E F G A

We can see that the third, sixth and seventh notes of the natural minor scale are flatted as compared to it's parallel major scale. We can use this to describe the natural minor scale as this formula:

A                 B                   C                 D                 E                    F               G                A

Tonic   major 2nd   minor 3rd   perfect 4th   perfect 5th   minor 6th   minor 7th   octave

Exercise:

Spell the following natural minor scales and list their relative major key:

E-

B-

C-

...and all the others :)

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