What notes of the scale do you raise to get the harmonic and melodic minors?
Asked by
fathippo (
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February 26th, 2010
I am trying to refresh my memory =P
What I remember is for the melodic minor you raise the submediant and ze leading note 1 semitone only when you are ascending, and for the harmonic it is the leading note up 1 semitone…
Please can you correct me on what I’ve got wrong? Thankyou =)
i can’t get a straight answer in simple person language anywhere
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3 Answers
You are correct.
There are three minor modes. natural minor, harmonic minor and melodic minor.
Natural minor stays with the key signature of the relative major (e.g., “A” minor has the same key signature as “C” Major). The natural minor scale ascening, is: whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step. When descending it does not change
The Harmonic minor raises the subtonic by ½ step, both ascending and descending. (In “A” minor, the “G” becomes a “G#”.)
In the Melodic minor scale the sixth and seventh notes of the scale are each raised by one half step when ascending but return to the natural minor when descending. (Again using “A” minor for the example, the ascending “F” and “G” would become “F#” and “G#” respectively, and revert back to the naturals when descending).
(Edit for clarity)
That would be correct, only I believe in natural minor, the 7th note is called the “subtonic” rather than leading, so in harmonic and melodic, the subtonic is raised to become a leading tone.
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