Re: [Harp-L] Re: Harmonic Minor Modes?

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

The beginning of your post confuses the harmonic minor with the melodic minor.

Harmonic minor is the same going up or down:

C D Eb F G Ab B C

Melodic minor is usually described as using raised (or major) 6th and 7th degrees going up:

C D Eb F G A B C

and lowered, or minor, 6th and 7th going down:

C Bb Ab G F Eb D C

(In practice, either form of this scale can ascend or descend, and the works of great classical composers demonstrate that the "ascending" and "descending" names are simply academic labels.)

Note that the "descending" version of melodic minor is the same as the so-called "natural minor" scale, which is just the 6th mode of a major scale (Eb major in this case).

Modes of the natural minor scale (or descending melodic minor) are the same as the modes of the major scale. So usually those modes are not discussed in relation to minor scales.

However, the ascending melodic minor is a unique scale with unique modes, and these are of considerable interest.

In jazz, the so-called "altered scale" is the 7th mode of ascending melodic minor:

B C D Eb F G A B

If you play this over a B7 chord, you get a scale where every note in the scale (except the tonic note) is "altered", i.e., different from a major scale:

B = tonic

C = minor 2nd

D = minor 3rd

Eb = diminished 4th (but usually heard as major 3rd  so the scale has both minor and major third)

F = diminished 5th (instead of perfect 5th, or F#)

G = minor 6th (but may be heard as augmented 5th, depending on circumstance)

A = minor 7th

The altered scale is the melodic minor mode used most heavily by jazz musicians. One interesting aspect of it is that part of it sounds like whole tone scale (Eb-F-G-A-B) and part of it sounds like a diminished scale (A-B-C-D-Eb-F).

The 4th mode is a sort of soft-jazz mode:

F G A B C D Eb

Play this over an F7 chord and you get almost a mixolydian scale. The "almost" part is the raised 4th degree (B) that gives it a floating feeling along with the bluesiness of the flat 7th (Eb). Of course, you can also treat the raised 4th as a flat 5th, making it even bluesier.

In exploring the other modes, focus at first on two things:

1) What sort of a 7th chord occurs on the tonic note of the scale?

2) What qualities (major/minor/diminished/augmented) do the scale degrees have? 

Then go to a keyboard and play the tonic 7th chord for the mode with your left hand while you explore the scale with your right hand.

Winslow

--- On Mon, 8/25/08, Joseph Bernard <bjosephmex@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Joseph Bernard <bjosephmex@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Re: Harmonic Minor Modes?
To: ryan.eugene@xxxxxxxxx
Cc: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Monday, August 25, 2008, 6:29 PM

I tried to answer my own question.  Hereʼs some opinions that the harmonic
minor scale ascends like this C D Eb F G A B C, and decends like this C Bb Ab G
F Eb D C.  Heck, I knew that was done, just didn't know that it was called
melodic minor.
http://harp-l.org/mailman/htdig/harp-l/1994-November/msg00079.html
http://harp-l.org/mailman/htdig/harp-l/2008-June/msg00066.html


    
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