Introduction to the Harmonic Minor Scale -by Drew Peterson OK, a brief little analysis of the harmonic minor scale, and the chords you can derrive from it... I typed this up for a guy on GuitarWar, but thought it was worth posting to my site, so here ya go. Believe it or not, the harmonic minor scale will actually make more sense if we talk about a natural minor scale first. Specifically, harmonizing it. Might seem anti-intuitive at first, but nod your head and smile for a bit and everything will click. Now, the first chord derrived from the natural minor (aeolean) scale is a minor triad, composed of the scale's root, third, and 5th. (1, b3, 5). now, if you move each of those notes up one scale step at a time, you'll get the 7 other chords derrived from the scale: Aeolean (natural minor) mode: 1, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6, b7 Aeolean chords: 1, b3, 5 2, 4, b6 b3, 5, b7 4, b6, 1 5, b7, 2 b6, 1, b3 b7, 2, 4 Now let's apply that to the neck of the guitar: we'll choose the key of A, since that was what your entry was in, and additionally, we won't have to worry about sharps and flats, for now at least: in the key of A, the Aeolean mode goes A, B, C, D, E, F, G. This gives you the following chords: A, C, E -Am B, D, F -Bdim C, E, G -C D, F, A -Dm E, G, B -Em F, A, C -F G, B, D -G On the neck of the guitar, that looks something like this: |---------------------------------| |---------------------------------| |-5---7---9----10---12---14---16--| |-7---9---10---12---14---15---17--| |-7---8---10---12---14---15---17--| |-5---7---8----10---12---13---15--| Now, back to the major scale. Play a major 1-4-5-1 progression in A. That'll give you an A, a D, and an E. Note the strong resolution between the E and the A- this is because the third of the E chord, G#, is only a half step from the root of the A, and consequentially has a strong "pull" to resolve to the tonic. Now do the same with the A minor chords- Am, Dm, and Em. If you'll notice, the Em still resolves back to the Am, but it's a much weaker resolution. This is because there is now an entire step between the third of Em (G) and the root of Am. This is where the harmonic minor scale comes in. If you raise the third of the Em, making it a major chord, you get that same strong resolution back to the tonic. And since the 3rd of the E is the 7th degree of the scale, by raising the third you effectively raise the 7th of the scale from a minor 7th to a major 7th. This gives you your harmonic minor scale: 1, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6, 7. In the key of A, this gives you A, B, C, D, E, F, G#. Now, take the numerical chart of A Aeolean chords and raise every instance of the 7th degree in there: you get: 1, b3, 5 2, 4, b6 b3, 5, 7 4, b6, 1 5, 7, 2 b6, 1, b3 7, 2, 4 If you'll notice, the three chords that have changed are the ones built off the 3rd scale degree, where the 5th goes up a half step, the one built off the 5th scale degree, where the 3rd goes up a halfstep, and the one built off the 7th, where the root goes up a half-step. So, we now have: A, C, E -Am B, D, F -Bdim C, E, G# -Caug D, F, A -Dm E, G#, B -E F, A, C -F G#, B, D -G#dim Which looks like this on the neck of the guitar: |---------------------------------| |---------------------------------| |-5---7---9----10---13---14---16--| |-7---9---10---12---14---15---18--| |-7---8---11---12---14---15---17--| |-5---7---8----10---12---13---16--| It's also quite interesting to add the 7th degree to all these chords, as you get some very unusual harmonizations: A, C, E, G# -Am(maj7) B, D, F, A -B 1/2dim7 C, E, G#, B -Caug(maj7) D, F, A, C -Dm7 E, G#, B, D -E7 F, A, C, E -Fmaj7 G#, B, D, F -G#dim7 or, |---------------------------------| |---------------------------------| |-5---7---9----10---13---14---16--| |-6---7---9----10---12---14---15--| |-7---8---11---12---14---15---17--| |-5---7---8----10---12---13---16--| They sound pretty dissonant on their own, but can make for some fun progressions: Am Dm G#dim7 Am(M7) E7 Am |-------------------------5---------------------------------------------| |---------5-------------6---6---------------------------------5----5~---| |-------5---5---------7-------7---------4-------5-------1-------5--5~---| |-----7-------7-----7-----------7-----3-------6-------0------------6h7~-| |---7-----------7-5-----------------5-------7-------2-------7------7~---| |-5-------------------------------4-------5-------0-------5--------5~---| The G#dim7 is just a badass-sounding voicing, and the Am(M7) (minor chord with a major 7th) gives you this really tricky false-resolution; it blurs the line between an Am and an E major chord, and makes the final resolution all the more interesting. Or, Am Am(M7) E7 Caug(M7) Dm Am G#dim7 Am |-----------------7----7------------------------------------------5----| |-----------------9----9----------------------------------9----9--5----| |-5----5--5----5--7----7--9----10----10--5----5--4-----4--7----7--5----| |-7----7--6----6--9----9--9----12----12--7----7--3-----3--9----9--7----| |-7----7--7----7--7----7--11---12----12--7----7--5-----5--7----7--7----| |-5----5--5----5----------8----10----10--5----5--4-----4----------5----| I'll try to post some audio examples for these. Basically, this scale is gonna give you some very disonnant voicings, but dissonant voicings that fit well together, if you can only figure out how they resolve. This is something you need to exploreon your own and see what works to your ears (remember, in music there are no wrong answers), but here's one hint: your two strongest resolutions will be: -the V7 resolving to the i. This is your strongest resolution. -the viidim7 resolving to the i. This is also a strong resolution. There are other moderately strong resolutions- for instance, iidim to i. This shouldn't come as a suprise, since you'll see that the G#dim7 only differs from an E7 by one pitch- F instead of E. This is a valuable substitution for lead playing- if you want to add some strong harmonic minor color to a progression, simply lay a diminished 7th arpeggio over the V chord starting from one half-step above the root (since a diminished 7th arpeggio is a series of stacked minor 3rds, an arpeggio starting on a given note and the same sequence of intervals starting a minor third above or below will be enharmonic equivalents- G#dim7 and Fdim7 are the same chord, as are Bdim7 and Ddim7). However, the first two are by far the strongest. Also, it's pretty traditional to use chords from both the natural minor and harmonic minor scales in conjunction with each other- for instance, a nice resolution occurs between a G#dim7 and a C major chord, even though technically the C ought to have a raised 5th. You just need to be mindful of the changes when soloing over progressions that move around a bit. Have fun with this stuff, hope you can use some of this. Enjoy! :o)