Major and minor scales are the backbone of modern western tonal music. We use these scales to form melodies and build diatonic chords and progressions. Understanding major and minor scales will help develop the skills you need for composition and performance.
Modal vs tonal music
Before we had major and minor scales, we had modes, which take us all the way back to ancient Greece.
Since we still have (and use) modes, I’d be more accurate in saying we only had the seven modes before major and minor scales were developed.
Like modern scales, modes follow a distinct pattern of tones and semitones, and the easiest way to learn all seven modes is to play them using only white notes with no sharps or flats.
We’ll go into more detail on modes and playing them in every key in another article, but for now, playing them as they are above will give you an idea of how they sound. Each mode has a distinct character; some sound major, some minor, and some are pretty ambiguous.
Modal music is music written within one of the seven modes utilizing few (often just one) chords. Modal music doesn’t follow functional harmony (tonic, subdominant, and dominant); it’s typically somewhat vague without a strong sense of home (because you don’t really go anywhere).
While modal music is still popular in genres like jazz, it was all but replaced by tonal music around the 17th century. Tonal music employs functional harmony, the concept of a home base with tension and release as you move away and toward home.
This new system relies on just two modes, the Ionian and the Aeolian, which are now known as the major and natural minor scales, respectively.
The major scale works perfectly in functional harmony, but the harmonic minor (Aeolian mode) needs some adjusting, and that’s why we have three minor scales to discuss below.
What’s the difference between major and minor scales?
Major and minor scales each follow a distinct pattern of whole and half steps (tones and semitones). The main technical difference is the third degree of the scale; a major scale always starts with a major third, and a minor scale never begins with a major third. You can make almost any note work in a minor scale besides a major third; it’s the note that dictates the scale’s tonality.
But, in a creative sense, major scales sound brighter and happier, while minor scales sound darker and more melancholy. I discuss the concept of major being brighter and minor being darker more in the major and minor chords article.
Remember, relative major and minor keys share the same key signature but start on different notes, therefore creating different intervals.
To find the relative minor for any major key, just drop down a minor third (three semitones).
Major scale
The major scale is where it all starts; it’s the first scale we learn as beginners and the first one we learn to harmonize. We start with the C major scale because it has no sharps or flats, making it the easiest to understand.
As you can see from the image below, you can play the C major scale using only white notes. The image also shows that you can build a major scale starting on any note by following the same pattern of tones (T) and semitones (S).
The major scale and its diatonic chords are at the heart of so many iconic songs and melodies. Practice the major scale in all 12 keys (don’t just stick to the easiest ones), get used to the chords and chord qualities within each major scale, and you’ll be playing countless songs in no time.
Minor scales
There are three minor scales:
- Natural minor (Aeolian mode). The natural minor scale is the default version; it’s the Aeolian mode and the scale we refer to as the relative minor of a major key.
- Harmonic minor. The harmonic minor scale is like the natural minor but has a sharpened seventh degree.
- Melodic minor. The melodic minor has sharpened sixth and seventh degrees when ascending. When descending, it reverts to the natural minor scale.
Why are there three minor scales?
Functional harmony is all about tension and release and creating a strong desire to resolve to the tonic. It’s about storytelling, a journey through varied emotions that typically resolves back where it started.
The strongest pull toward the tonic (home) comes from the dominant V7 (5) chord. The major scale has a dominant V7 chord thanks to the leading tone (the seventh note of the scale, a semitone below the tonic).
The leading tone is pivotal in this context because, as well as being the seventh degree of the scale, it’s the third degree of the fifth chord. The third in any chord dictates major or minor tonality. With the leading tone in a scale, the fifth chord has a major third; without it, the fifth chord has a minor third.
The natural minor scale doesn’t include the leading tone, so it has a minor v7 chord rather than a dominant V7. The minor v7 chord doesn’t create nearly as much tension as the dominant V7 and creates a modal transition.
As a result, composers adjusted the minor scale to create variations that provide more prominent tension and release.
Natural minor scale
We’ll start with the A natural minor scale because it’s the relative minor to C major and the easiest to play because it’s all white keys.
The fifth chord in this scale is an Em7, and while it’s a lovely chord (and still provides a pleasing transition to the tonic), it’s a little bland.
Harmonic minor scale
The sharpened seventh degree, in this case turning G to G#, gives us the leading tone.
In turn, the fifth chord, previously Em7, becomes a dominant E7, giving us the greater pull towards the tonic that we love in tonal music.
Now that we have the leading tone and a dominant V7 chord from the harmonic minor, we have a new problem.
We have an augmented second interval between the sixth and seventh degrees of the scale. Remember, it’s an augmented second rather than a minor third because the seventh degree is G#, not Ab.
This interval in this position isn’t the most melodically pleasing, especially for sung melodies.
One of the cool harmonic qualities of this scale is that the root produces a minor chord with a major seventh degree. In A harmonic minor, the first chord becomes A-maj7 or Am(maj7).
In most cases, you wouldn’t use this chord throughout an entire song; you’d stick to a simple Am. But composers often use it to end sequences with lots of suspense.
Melodic minor scale
The melodic minor scale addresses the above problem by raising the sixth degree of the scale. Now, we have a major second interval in place of that troublesome augmented second.
The melodic minor form provides a smoother melody when ascending towards the tonic.
But we don’t need that when descending away from the tonic, and that’s why we have the ascending and descending melodic minor.
When descending, the scale reverts to the natural minor.
Harmonizing the scales
I have already touched on this topic in my common chord progressions article, but it’s important to get used to harmonizing scales and not just running through them.
Let’s harmonize each scale covered here to 7th chords (four notes). We’ll start with the major scale but pay particular attention to the harmonic changes as we work through variations of the minor scale.
Conclusion
Understanding scales is one thing; having them under your fingertips whenever you need them is another. Practicing scales isn’t fun, and it’s one of the most ignored elements of practice, but it shouldn’t be. Getting to grips with scales improves your performance, composition, and improvisation (all of the fun things).
