tips & tricks for the rhythmically & harmonically-challenged
Posts tagged natural minor
Analyses of Minor Key Songs
Jan 31st
Who would have thought that the coming Chinese New Year has brought some inspiration to my current blog post! Well, to be specific it’s the little ditty which I know only as “Gong Xi, Gong Xi, Gong Xi Ni-ah! Gong Xi, Gong Xi, Gong Xi Ni!”
And the reason I’m writing about this is because it’s in minor key! Have a look at my transcribed lead sheet with a lightly jazzed up chord progression:
And here’s a little jazzy rendition of the piece:
Gong-Xi-Gong-XiA quick scan and listen to the song will uncover that the melody is clearly from the harmonic minor scale and so are the accompanying chords. So we can safely say that this piece is a classic example of a song composed in the harmonic minor key. It’s also very interesting to note that a supposedly festive and celebratory tune is written in a minor key, which is usually reserved for a more solemn and darker mood.
Chords used are the Imi (Ami), IVmi7 (Dmi7), IImi75b (Bmi7b5), V7 (E7) and bVIma7 (Fma7). These are actually very common chords in pop and simple jazz tunes. The major key equivalent would be I, IVma7, IImi7, V7 and VImi7. When looked from this perspective, learning chords and chord progressions in minor keys are not that daunting, right?
Let’s look at another song in minor key: Oasis’ “Wonderwall” (Sheet music and video clip used here are for educational purposes only.)
The original key of this piece is F#minor, specifically in F# Natural Minor. All the melody notes and chords are generated from this scale. The chord progression is in 2-bar phrases and these are repeated a number of times.
Here are the chord phrases used:
Intro:Imi-bIII-bVII-Imi (x4)
Pre-Verse: Imi-bIII-bVII-Imi (x3)
bVIma7-bVII-Imi
Verse 1/2: Imi-bIII-bVII-IVmi (x4)
Pre-Chorus: bVI-bVII-Imi (x2)
bVI-bVII-bIII-Imi-IVmi
Chorus: bVI-Imi-bIII-Imi (x3)
bIII-bIII6 (1st ending)[Repeat from Verse 2]
bIII-Imi (2nd ending)
bVI-Imi-bIII-Imi (x5)
bVI-Imi-bIII-Imi (x7)
bVI-Imi-bIII-Imi
So far, both pieces have remained within the appropriate minor scales.
Finally, let’s take a look at a minor composition that employs the natural and melodic minor keys. (Lead sheet and short music clip here for educational purposes only.)
I play a simple ballad arrangement here so that you can hear the movement of the chords and main minor melody line:
Autumn-LeavesThe song is in the key of E minor. Just by looking at the melody of the song, we can see that it uses a combination of the scales of E natural minor (second line, 1st bar melody notes C & D) and E melodic minor (second line, 3rd bar melody notes C# & D#).
But because jazz standard tunes can usually be broken down to II-V-I chord progressions, the first four chords, i.e. Ami7-D7-Gma7-Cma7 actually form the IImi-V7-Ima7-IVma7 of Key of G major (the relative of E minor); and the F#mi7b5-B7-Emi is the IImi7b5-V7-Imi of Key of E minor. Hence, you hear the fluidity of the melody notes moving from natural minor (or related major) to melodic minor and back and forth.
So learn up all three minor scales and their diatonic chords and play some great music today!
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Meet the Major Scale’s Little Cousins…
Dec 16th
… the Minor scales!
They might be named “minor,” but there is nothing small or insignificant about the minor scales, which are closely related to the major scales. In fact, without the flavor of the three main minor scales and their diatonic chords, the music we know today will be quite bland and one dimensional. Jazz music especially relies on the minor scales a lot for its chromaticism or color.
In contemporary music, there are altogether three types of minor scales, i.e. Natural, Melodic and Harmonic. Each of these scales are as important as the other in terms of its scale as melody sources and its diatonic chords as rich harmonic sources.
Natural Minor Scale and its Diatonic Triads
By starting on the sixth degree of a major scale and playing every note until it reaches the next octave of the same note, we form the natural minor scale. This is the purest form of the minor scale. The other two are variations of this.
Chords I, IV and V are minor; III, VI and VII are major; and chord II is diminished.
Harmonic Minor Scale and its Diatonic Triads
The major scale is also famously known for its DO-RE-MI-FA-SO-LA-TI-DO (these are the solfege names of the scale notes) — thanks to the popular song “Do-Re-Mi” from the wonderful musical The Sound of Music. Try this: Sing out loud the first five notes, i.e. DO-RE-MI-FA-SO, your ears will naturally be drawn to complete the rest LA-TI-DO! This demonstrates that our ears have been influenced by the natural and organic sound of the major scale and how it completes itself. Notice how the seventh degree of the scale, i.e. TI has an especially strong pull back to the first note.
Now, if we take the natural minor scale and try to end the scale with the same strong TI-DO sound, this will form the harmonic minor scale. Observe how the unique sound of the harmonic minor scale comes from the movement from the sixth degree to the seventh, LE-TI (a span of three halfsteps).
We have an interesting mix of chord qualities from the harmonic minor scale. Chords I and IV are minor; V and VI are major; II and VII are diminished; and chord III is augmented. As you can see this scale actually contains all the four basic triad types, i.e. major, minor, augmented and diminished.
Melodic Minor Scale and its Diatonic Triads
Moving along, we can further smoothen the movement of the sixth to the seventh degree in harmonic minor by changing the LE to LA, essentially reverting to the LA-TI-DO sound of the major scale. Doing this will create the melodic minor scale.
The melodic minor scale also contains all the four basic triad types. Chords I and II are minor; III is augmented; IV and V are major; and chords VI and VII are diminished.
Notice the first five notes of all three minor scales are the same. They differ only in the sixth and seventh degrees. So if you put all the available notes together, you actually form a composite minor scale.
Composite Minor Scale
A song in minor will use any or all of the three minor scales at one time, so the composite scale is very useful.
Compiling all the available diatonic triads from all three minor scales is just as important.
| Chord/Scale | Natural Minor | Harmonic Minor | Melodic Minor |
| I | Ami | Ami | Ami |
| II | Bdim | Bdim | Bmi |
| III | C | C+ | C+ |
| IV | Dmi | Dmi | D |
| V | Emi | E | E |
| VI | F | F | F#dim |
| VII | G | G#dim | G#dim |
Now, break it down further by chord degree and you will find a few chord qualities for each.
| Chord Degree | Chord Qualities |
| I | Ami |
| II | Bdim, Bmi |
| III | C, C+ |
| IV | Dmi, D |
| V | Emi, E |
| VI | F, F#dim |
| VII | G, G#dim |
This is a lot of information to digest. In the next article, I’ll take a look at a minor piece or two and put all these together!
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