Minor Scales at the Keys

The same keys, a different home

Start on A instead of C and play only white keys up to the next A. Nothing new under the fingers — and yet the scale sounds darker, sadder, more serious. This is A natural minor, the relative minor of C major: the two keys share every note and the same empty key signature, but they call a different note home. Where C major runs whole–whole–half–whole–whole–whole–half, A minor runs whole–half–whole–whole–half–whole–whole. The half steps land in different places, and that is enough to change the character completely.

The raised seventh

Play A natural minor and stop on the G just before the top A. It does not pull upward the way B pulls to C in C major; it sits there, a whole step short, unsure. Composers fixed this centuries ago by raising the seventh note a semitone: G becomes G♯, one step under A, and now the scale leans home. The result is the harmonic minor, and the raised note also gives the key its major-flavoured dominant chord — E major instead of E minor — which is why it is the minor scale you will meet most often in real pieces.

The raising has a side effect: between F and G♯ there is now a gap of three semitones, an augmented second. That slightly exotic leap is the sound of the harmonic minor — hear it in Für Elise, in film scores, in half of all flamenco. Melodies that want to avoid the gap raise the sixth as well on the way up (the melodic minor) and fall back to the natural form on the way down; for now, harmonic minor is the one to put under your fingers.

Fingering: nothing new

A minor uses exactly the C major fingering in both hands: right hand 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5, thumb under after the third finger; left hand 5 4 3 2 1 3 2 1, third finger over the thumb. The G♯ in the harmonic form lands on the fourth finger, which is short and reaches the black key without any adjustment. Coming down, the thumb passes under the third finger on the way from D to C exactly as it did in C major. If the major scale is secure, the minor is a matter of starting two white keys lower and remembering one black key.

The next minor keys

Every major key has a relative minor three semitones below it. G major’s is E minor (one sharp, F♯; harmonic form raises D to D♯). F major’s is D minor (one flat, B♭; harmonic form raises C to C♯). Both use the same fingering again. Learn A minor well and the pattern for those two is a five-minute transfer.

The exercise is A harmonic minor in the right hand, one octave up and down; the second is A natural minor in the left. Listen for the augmented second on the way up — the leap from F to G♯ — and make it sound deliberate, not like a stumble.