Harmony: The Minor Scale

A Minor Scale can be constructed from the major scale by beginning on the sixth degree, In C-major we begin on A and generate one of the two kinds of minor scales. Because tonality has both a harmonic and a melodic aspect the minor scale involves the added complexity that the scale we make in the simple way by beginning on degree six of the major scale sounds OK when it is played down from A: A G F E etc., but when we play it up from A B C D E, we want to raise chromatically the sixth and seventh degrees, namely to F# and G# in the key of A-minor. Not only that but the dominant of A is E and even in A-minor we want to here a major triad, namely E-major, by changing G to G#. So the ascending minor scale with the sixth and seventh degrees raised is called "Ascending harmonic minor" and in addition to making the dominant triad of the minor mode a major triad, it supplies melodic weight to the minor key because we made the seventh degree a leading tone, that is G# to A.

So in the key of C-major the descending harmonic minor scale is

A,G,F,E,D,C,B,A

and the Ascending Harmonic Minor is

A,B,C,D,E,F#,G#,A