Music Fundamentals 3: Minor Scales and

Keys

Collection Editor:
Terry B. Ewell

Music Fundamentals 3: Minor Scales and

Keys

Collection Editor:
Terry B. Ewell
Authors:
Terry B. Ewell
Russell Jones
Catherine Schmidt-Jones

Online:
< http://cnx.org/content/col10717/1.2/ >

CONNEXIONS
Rice University, Houston, Texas

This selection and arrangement of content as a collection is copyrighted by Terry B. Ewell. It is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
Collection structure revised: June 19, 2009
PDF generated: April 13, 2010
For copyright and attribution information for the modules contained in this collection, see p. 22.

Table of Contents
1 Minor Keys and Scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 Learning Major and Minor Scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3 Ear Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Attributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

iv

Chapter 1

Minor Keys and Scales

1.1 Music in a Minor Key

2 uses a dierent set of notes3 (its major scale4 ). In each major scale, however, the notes are

Each major key

arranged in the same major scale pattern and build the same types of chords that have the same relationships
with each other. (See Beginning Harmonic Analysis

5 for more on this.) So music that is in, for example,

C major, will not sound signicantly dierent from music that is in, say, D major. But music that is in D
minor will have a dierent quality, because the notes in the minor scale follow a dierent pattern and so have
dierent relationships with each other. Music in minor keys has a dierent sound and emotional feel, and
develops dierently harmonically. So you can't, for example, transpose

6 a piece from C major to D minor

(or even to C minor) without changing it a great deal. Music that is in a minor key is sometimes described
as sounding more solemn, sad, mysterious, or ominous than music that is in a major key.

To hear some

simple examples in both major and minor keys, see Major Keys and Scales .

1.2 Minor Scales

8

Minor scales sound dierent from major scales because they are based on a dierent pattern of intervals .
Just as it did in major scales, starting the minor scale pattern on a dierent note will give you a dierent

key signature , a dierent set of sharps or ats. The scale that is created by playing all the notes in a minor
key signature is a

natural minor scale.

go up the scale using the interval pattern:

10 and

To create a natural minor scale, start on the tonic note

whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, half step,

whole step, whole step.

1 This content is available online at <http://cnx.org/content/m10856/2.20/>.
2 "Major Keys and Scales" <http://cnx.org/content/m10851/latest/>
3 "Duration: Note Lengths in Written Music" <http://cnx.org/content/m10945/latest/>
4 "Major Keys and Scales": Section Major Scales <http://cnx.org/content/m10851/latest/#s2>
5 "Beginning Harmonic Analysis" <http://cnx.org/content/m11643/latest/>
6 "Transposition: Changing Keys" <http://cnx.org/content/m10668/latest/>
7 "Major Keys and Scales", Exercise 1 <http://cnx.org/content/m10851/latest/#exer0a>
8 "Interval" <http://cnx.org/content/m10867/latest/>
9 "Key Signature" <http://cnx.org/content/m10881/latest/>
10 "Major Keys and Scales" <http://cnx.org/content/m10851/latest/#p1a>

CHAPTER 1.

MINOR KEYS AND SCALES

Natural Minor Scale Intervals

Figure 1.1

11 to these minor scales.

Listen

Exercise 1.1

(Solution on p. 8.)

For each note below, write a natural minor scale, one octave, ascending (going up) beginning on

12 PDF le.

that note. If you need sta paper, you may print the sta paper

Figure 1.2

1.3 Relative Minor and Major Keys

13 with a major key. A minor key is called the relative minor of

Each minor key shares a key signature

the major key that has the same key signature. Even though they have the same key signature, a minor

11 See the le at <http://cnx.org/content/m10856/latest/3a.mid>

12 See the le at <http://cnx.org/content/m10856/latest/stapaper1.pdf>
13 "Key Signature" <http://cnx.org/content/m10881/latest/>

key and its

relative major

sound very dierent. They have dierent tonal centers

melodies, harmonies, and chord progressions

strategic accidentals

14 , and each will feature

15 built around their (dierent) tonal centers. In fact, certain

16 are very useful in helping establish a strong tonal center in a minor key. These useful

accidentals are featured in the melodic minor (Section 1.3: Relative Minor and Major Keys) and harmonic
minor (Section 1.3: Relative Minor and Major Keys) scales.

Comparing Major and Minor Scale Patterns

The interval patterns for major and natural minor scales are basically the same pattern
starting at dierent points.
Figure 1.3:

It is easy to predict where the relative minor of a major key can be found. Notice that the pattern for
minor scales overlaps the pattern for major scales. In other words, they are the same pattern starting in a
dierent place. (If the patterns were very dierent, minor key signatures would not be the same as major
key signatures.) The pattern for the minor scale starts a half step plus a whole step lower than the major
scale pattern, so

a relative minor is always three half steps lower than its relative major.

For

example, C minor has the same key signature as E at major, since E at is a minor third higher than C.

14 "Major Keys and Scales" <http://cnx.org/content/m10851/latest/#p1a>

15 "Harmony": Chords <http://cnx.org/content/m11654/latest/#l0b>
16 "Pitch: Sharp, Flat, and Natural Notes" <http://cnx.org/content/m10943/latest/#p0e>

CHAPTER 1.

MINOR KEYS AND SCALES

Relative Minor

The C major and C minor scales start on the same note, but have dierent key signatures.
C minor and E at major start on dierent notes, but have the same key signature. C minor is the
relative minor of E at major.
Figure 1.4:

Exercise 1.2

(Solution on p. 8.)

What are the relative majors of the minor keys in Figure 1.2?

1.4 Harmonic and Melodic Minor Scales

All of the scales above are

natural minor scales.

They contain only the notes in the minor key signature.

There are two other kinds of minor scales that are commonly used, both of which include notes that are not in
the key signature. The harmonic minor scale raises the seventh note of the scale by one half step,
whether you are going up or down the scale. Harmonies in minor keys often use this raised seventh

17 . (Please see Beginning Harmonic

tone in order to make the music feel more strongly centered on the tonic

18 for more about this.) In the melodic minor scale, the sixth and seventh notes of the
Analysis

scale are each raised by one half step when going up the scale, but return to the natural minor
when going down the scale. Melodies in minor keys often use this particular pattern of accidentals19 , so
instrumentalists nd it useful to practice melodic minor scales.

17 "Major Keys and Scales" <http://cnx.org/content/m10851/latest/#p1a>

18 "Beginning Harmonic Analysis": Section Minor Keys <http://cnx.org/content/m11643/latest/#s6>
19 "Pitch: Sharp, Flat, and Natural Notes" <http://cnx.org/content/m10943/latest/#p0e>

Comparing Types of Minor Scales

Figure 1.5

20 , harmonic minor21 , and melodic minor22 scales.

Listen to the dierences between the natural minor

Exercise 1.3

(Solution on p. 8.)

Rewrite each scale from Figure 1.2 as an ascending harmonic minor scale.

Exercise 1.4

(Solution on p. 9.)

Rewrite each scale from Figure 1.2 as an ascending and descending melodic minor scale.

1.5 Jazz and "Dorian Minor"

Major and minor scales are traditionally the basis for Western Music

23 , but jazz theory also recognizes other

24
scales, based on the medieval church modes , which are very useful for improvisation. One of the most
useful of these is the scale based on the dorian mode, which is often called the

dorian minor,

since it has

a basically minor sound. Like any minor scale, dorian minor may start on any note, but like dorian mode,
it is often illustrated as natural notes beginning on d.

20 See the le at <http://cnx.org/content/m10856/latest/tonminnatural.mp3>

21 See the le at <http://cnx.org/content/m10856/latest/tonminharmonic.mp3>
22 See the le at <http://cnx.org/content/m10856/latest/tonminmelodic.mp3>
23 "What Kind of Music is That?" <http://cnx.org/content/m11421/latest/>
24 "Modes and Ragas: More Than just a Scale" <http://cnx.org/content/m11633/latest/#p2a>

CHAPTER 1.

MINOR KEYS AND SCALES

Dorian Minor

The "dorian minor" can be written as a scale of natural notes starting on d. Any scale
with this interval pattern can be called a "dorian minor scale".
Figure 1.6:

Comparing this scale to the natural minor scale makes it easy to see why the dorian mode sounds minor;
only one note is dierent.

Comparing Dorian and Natural Minors

Figure 1.7

You may nd it helpful to notice that the "relative major" of the Dorian begins one whole step lower.
(So, for example, D Dorian has the same key signature as C major.) In fact, the reason that Dorian is so

25 is being played (for example, while

useful in jazz is that it is the scale used for improvising while a ii chord

a d minor chord is played in the key of C major), a chord which is very common in jazz. (See Beginning
Harmonic Analysis

26 for more about how chords are classied within a key.) The student who is interested

in modal jazz will eventually become acquainted with all of the

modal scales.

Each of these is named for

27 which has the same interval pattern, and each can be used with a dierent chord

the medieval church mode

within the key. Dorian is included here only to explain the common jazz reference to the "dorian minor"
and to give notice to students that the jazz approach to scales can be quite dierent from the traditional
classical approach.

25 "Beginning Harmonic Analysis": Section Basic Triads in Major Keys <http://cnx.org/content/m11643/latest/#s1>

26 "Beginning Harmonic Analysis" <http://cnx.org/content/m11643/latest/>
27 "Modes and Ragas: More Than just a Scale" <http://cnx.org/content/m11633/latest/#p2a>

Comparison of Dorian and Minor Scales

You may also nd it useful to compare the dorian with the minor scales from Figure 1.5
(Comparing Types of Minor Scales). Notice in particular the relationship of the altered notes in the
harmonic, melodic, and dorian minors.
Figure 1.8:

note: Please

help me improve these materials by lling out a short survey28

. I am considering

a number of possible changes and additions to my music materials at this site, but don't have the
time to do all of them. This is your chance to let me know what would be most helpful to you.

28 https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/L5JZVN9

CHAPTER 1.

Solutions to Exercises in Chapter 1

Solution to Exercise 1.1 (p. 2)

Figure 1.9

Solution to Exercise 1.2 (p. 4)

1. A minor: C major
2. G minor: B at major
3. B at minor: D at major
4. E minor: G major
5. F minor: A at major
6. F sharp minor: A major

Solution to Exercise 1.3 (p. 5)

MINOR KEYS AND SCALES

Figure 1.10

Solution to Exercise 1.4 (p. 5)

10

CHAPTER 1.

Figure 1.11

MINOR KEYS AND SCALES

Chapter 2

Learning Major and Minor Scales

Mastering your major and minor scales is a foundational requirement for music theory and music performance.
You can greatly assist your mastery of scales by devoting time to them every day. The more types of memory
you engage, the better your retention and internalization of the scales. Here is a brief presentation of ways
in which you can learn and memorize scales:

Kinetic and Visual Memory

Many musicians learn their scales rst on their instruments.
arpeggios on piano.

For instance, I rst learned scales and

Later when I studied bassoon I practiced them on that instrument as well.

The

controlled nger motions I learned with each scale were similar to mastering a dance or gymnastic routine.
With more and more practice, I became a micro athlete who could progressively reproduce the routine (the
scale) with greater accuracy and speed. I made use of

kinetic memorythe

nger patterns were thoroughly

memorized.
Playing scales on piano has the added benet of encouraging

visual memory.

Watching ngers move

over the landscape of white and black keys also reinforces the scale patterns. Even if you are not a pianist,
you will enhance your memory of scales by practicing them at a keyboard. The keyboard is a great tool for
visualizing scales.

Cognitive Memory
Cognitive memory and theoretical understanding overlap as categories, but it will be helpful to separate
them here for the moment. Remember memorizing your multiplication tables? Rote memorization is also
eective for learning your key signatures. Music majors need to rapidly recognize all key signatures and this
speed only comes with memorization.
You should be able to immediately do the following:
1) Reproduce the order of sharps and ats. (F#, C#, G#, etc.; Bb, Eb, Ab, etc.)
2) Recognize or reproduce the number of sharps and ats for every key. For instance, you should be able
to state quickly that Ab major has four ats, B major has ve sharps.
3) Upon seeing a scale written out with accidentals (no key signature), you should immediately know the
key.
The tonic (note name) of the relative minor key is a minor third (three half steps) below the tonic of
the major key. A minor scale is termed a relative minor when it shares a key signature with its relative
major. I nd it simplest to identify the minor keys by their relationship to the major keys. Of course, I
have memorized the more common minor key signatures simply through repeated usage. However, I use the
relationship of the minor third for rapid recognition of the minor keys.

1 This

content is available online at <http://cnx.org/content/m25610/1.1/>.

11

12

CHAPTER 2.

Figure 2.1:

LEARNING MAJOR AND MINOR SCALES

Examples of Relative Major and Minor

Figure 1 supplies the major and minor tonics of the given key signatures. The rst example with two
sharps has D as the tonic of the major scale and B as tonic of the minor scale. The two notes are separated by
three half steps (D to C#, C# to C, C to B). You can also nd the major to minor relationship by counting
down three scale steps including the rst note: D-C#-B. Try verifying the major to minor relationship in
the other two examples by counting down by half steps and by scale steps.
Why are key signatures important for memorizing scales? If you know your key signatures, then the scale
members will be obvious. For instance, if a major key signature with two sharps is given, the D major scale
is required. One does not need to guess whether D major has G# in the scale, for instance. Every scale
member is determined by means of the key signature.
The three common forms of the minor scales can then be remembered in relation to the key signature.
You should be able to rapidly reproduce all the minor scales by memorizing the rules given below.

The

natural minor honors the key signature. It is natural since it does not alter the key signature. Below is an
example of the A minor scale, a scale which has no sharps or ats in the key signature.

Figure 2.2:

Natural minor scale in A.

The harmonic minor raises the seventh scale degree both ascending and descending.

It is harmonic

since the raised seventh allows for a dominant chord. A dominant chord in A minor would be E-G#-B.

13

Figure 2.3:

Harmonic minor scale in A.

nd (A2) interval, however, presents awkward melodic patterns

nd interval which contains three half steps is dicult to
both ascending and descending. The augmented 2
The harmonic minor, with the augmented 2

sing. This leads us to our last common conguration of the minor scale. The melodic minor raises the sixth
and seventh scale degrees when ascending but then reverts to the natural minor descending. It is melodic
since the scale moves in a smooth, step wise fashion ascending to the tonic (here A4) and descending from
the tonic.

Figure 2.4:

Melodic minor scale in A.

Theoretical Understanding
This section presents scale construction by means of tetrachords. One easy method of remembering the
order of intervals in the major scale is to divide the scale into two tetrachords, that is, two groupings of four
notes. Figure 1 provides a major scale starting on C.

14

CHAPTER 2.

Figure 2.5:

LEARNING MAJOR AND MINOR SCALES

Major scale in C with tetrachords.

The two tetrachords in the major scale are under the green lines, separated by a bar line. Notice that
the interval sequence is the same for the lower and upper tetrachord of the major scale. Each tetrachord
has a whole, whole, and half step. Let's term this sequence of whole and half steps (W, W, H) the major
tetrachord.
Also notice that the two tetrachords are connected by a whole step (the lowest W in the gure). The
tetrachords in the major scale as well as those in the minor scales are all connected by a whole step.
Minor scale construction is more complicated since there are three common forms of the scale.
natural minor features a lower tetrachord common to all the minor scales.

The

We will call this sequence of

whole and half steps (W, H, W) the minor tetrachord. Study the following gures paying careful attention
to the upper tetrachords in each minor scale:

Figure 2.6:

Natural minor scale in A with tetrachords.

15

Figure 2.7:

Harmonic minor scale in A with tetrachords.

Figure 2.8:

Melodic Minor Scale in A with tetrachords.

In summary, if you learn the four tetrachords you will be able to construct the major and three minor
scales. All the tetrachords are connected by a whole step.

Major scale: lower major tetrachord (W, W, H), upper major tetrachord
Melodic minor scale: lower minor tetrachord (W, H, W), upper natural minor tetrachord (H,
Harmonic minor scale: lower minor tetrachord, upper harmonic minor tetrachord (H, A, H)
Melodic minor scale ascending: lower minor tetrachord, upper major tetrachord
Melodic minor scale descending: upper natural minor tetrachord, lower minor tetrachord
Conclusion

W, W)

Familiarizing yourself with all of these ways of knowing major and minor scales will help you to master
your scales. You will nd that one or two methods work best. Whichever method you choose, however, you
must develop rapid recognition of your scales and key signatures. This will take months of practice, so why
not start working right now?

16

CHAPTER 2.

LEARNING MAJOR AND MINOR SCALES

Chapter 3

Ear Training

3.1 What is Ear Training?

When musicians talk about

ear,

they don't mean the sense organ itself so much as the brain's ability to

perceive, distinguish, and understand what the ear has heard. The term

ear training

2 and chords3 just by hearing them.

refers to teaching

musicians to recognize information about notes

A few people have what is called

perfect pitch or absolute pitch.

4

These people, when they hear music,

can tell you exactly what they are hearing: the G above middle C , for example, or the rst inversion

5 of an

F minor chord . A few musicians with particularly perceptive ears can even tell you that a piano is tuned
a few cents

7 higher than the one that they play at home. This is an unusual skill that even most trained

musicians do not have, and research seems to suggest that if you don't have it at a very early age, you cannot
develop it. (For more on this subject, you may want to look up Robert Jourdain's Music, the Brain, and
Ecstasy: How Music Captures our Imagination.)

However, most musicians can be trained to recognize

relative pitch.

In other words, if you play two

8 higher than the other. If you play four chords9

notes, they can tell you that one of them is a major third

in a row, they can tell you that you played a tonic-subdominant-dominant seventh-tonic (I-IV-V7-I) chord

10 .

progression

Fortunately, having relative pitch is good enough, and for many musicians may even be more useful than
perfect pitch, because of the way Western

11 music is conceived. Since all major keys12 are so similar, a

piece in a major key will sound almost exactly the same whether you play it in C major or D major. The
thing that matters is not what note you start on, but how all the notes are related to each other and to the
"home" note (the tonic

13 ) of the key. If someone really wants the piece to be in a dierent key (because it's

easier to sing or play in that key, or just because they want it to sound higher or lower), the whole thing can

14 , but the only dierence that would make (in the sound) is that the entire piece will sound

be transposed

higher or lower. Most listeners would not even notice the dierence, unless you played it in both keys, one
right after the other.

1 This content is available online at <http://cnx.org/content/m12401/1.14/>.

2 "Duration: Note Lengths in Written Music" <http://cnx.org/content/m10945/latest/>
3 "Harmony": Chords <http://cnx.org/content/m11654/latest/#l0b>
4 "Octaves and the Major-Minor Tonal System" <http://cnx.org/content/m10862/latest/#p2bb>
5 "Triads": Section First and Second Inversions <http://cnx.org/content/m10877/latest/#s2>
6 "Naming Triads": Section Major and Minor Chords <http://cnx.org/content/m10890/latest/#s1>
7 "Tuning Systems" <http://cnx.org/content/m11639/latest/#p3d>
8 "Interval": Major and Minor Intervals <http://cnx.org/content/m10867/latest/#list22a>
9 "Harmony": Chords <http://cnx.org/content/m11654/latest/#l0b>
10 "Harmony": Chords <http://cnx.org/content/m11654/latest/#l0b>
11 "What Kind of Music is That?" <http://cnx.org/content/m11421/latest/>
12 "Major Keys and Scales" <http://cnx.org/content/m10851/latest/>
13 "Major Keys and Scales" <http://cnx.org/content/m10851/latest/#p1a>
14 "Transposition: Changing Keys" <http://cnx.org/content/m10668/latest/>
17

18

CHAPTER 3.

EAR TRAINING

note: All minor keys (Chapter 1) are also heard by most listeners as interchangeable, but there

are important dierences between major keys and minor keys.

In fact, the dierences in sound

between a major key and a minor key is one of the rst dierences that a musician should be able
to hear. If you would like to see whether your "ear" can recognize the dierence between major

15 in Major Keys and Scales16 .

and minor keys, please try the listening exercise

So, you often don't need to know exactly what notes or chords are being played. Simply having an ear
well-trained in "relative pitch" is extremely useful in many ways. Guitar and piano players can gure out

17 just by listening to them, and then play the progressions in their favorite keys. Other

chord progressions

instrumentalists can play a favorite tune without a written copy of it, just by knowing what the interval
to the next note must be. Composers and music arrangers can jot down a piece of music without having
to "pick it out" on an instrument to nd the notes and chords they want. And of course, ear training is
crucial to any musician who wants to play jazz or any type of improvisation. Given a well-trained "ear", any
musical idea that you "hear" in your head, you can play. And ear training is also crucial for those interested
in music theory, musicology, or just being able to write down a tune accurately.
As with all other musical skills, there are many dierent levels and kinds of prociency. One musician
may be very good at "playing by ear", but may not even read music and cannot name intervals

18 or write

the music down. Another may be very good at "taking dictation" (writing down the music they hear), and
yet feel unable to do jazz improvisation. As always, the key is to practice the particular skills that you want
to develop.

3.2 Ear Training Skills

3.2.1 Tuning
This is the most basic ear training skill, crucial to being able to play music that people will want to hear.

Suggestions

At the beginner level, work with a skilled musician who can teach you how to tune your instrument
and help you identify and x tuning problems.

Play with other musicians often. (Playing along with recordings does not teach good tuning skills.)
Don't just tune at the beginning of rehearsals and performances. Listen at all times and be ready to
retune any note whenever necessary.

Spend as much time as necessary tuning whenever you play. Do not (knowingly) practice while out
of tune; if you do, it will slow down your ear training tremendously. Whenever possible, until you are
good at tuning, get someone else to help you tune every time you play.

Practice tuning quickly and accurately. Learn any alternate ngerings and other "tricks" available on
your instrument for ne-tuning each note as you play.

3.2.2 Playing Chords By Ear

For instruments that play chordal accompaniments, this is an incredibly useful skill.

Suggestions

You do not have to learn to read music to be able to do this, but it is very helpful to know a little
bit about music theory so that you can predict which chords are most likely to happen in a song. Try

19 .

starting with Beginning Harmonic Analysis

15 "Major Keys and Scales", Exercise 1 <http://cnx.org/content/m10851/latest/#exer0a>

16 "Major Keys and Scales", Exercise 1 <http://cnx.org/content/m10851/latest/#exer0a>
17 "Harmony": Chords <http://cnx.org/content/m11654/latest/#l0b>
18 "Interval" <http://cnx.org/content/m10867/latest/>
19 "Beginning Harmonic Analysis" <http://cnx.org/content/m11643/latest/>

19

Really listen to the chord progressions to the songs you do know. What do they sound like? Play the
same progressions in dierent keys and listen to how that does and also does not change the sound
of the progression.

Change the bass notes of the chords to see how that changes the sound of the

progression to your ears. Change ngerings and chord voicings, and again listen carefully to how that
changes the sound to your ears.

Practice guring out the chords to familiar songs (that you don't know the chords to). For songs that
you do know the chords to, try playing them in an unfamiliar key, or see if you can change or add
chords to make a new harmony that still ts the melody.

A teacher who understands harmony can help tremendously with this particular skill.

Even if you

don't normally take lessons, you might want to consider having a series of lessons on this.

Find a

teacher who is willing and able to teach you specically about harmony and typical chord progressions.

3.2.3 Playing Tunes by Ear

This is fun to be able to do, makes it easy to increase your repertoire, and is an important step in being able
to improvise.

Suggestions

Just do it! The best way to learn this skill is to spend some of your practice time trying to play tunes
you know and like.

Once you start getting good at this, see how quickly you can get a new tune down. How few mistakes
can you make the rst time you try it? Can you "recover" quickly from a mistake by making it sound
like a bit of improvisation?

If you play a melody instrument (one that plays only one note at a time), there are dierent bits of
information that help you recognize what the next note will be: how far it is from the note you are

20 ), where it is in the key (see Beginning Harmonic Analysis21 ) or where it is in the

22
chord (see Triads ). These three things are all related to each other, of course - and a musician with

on (see Interval

a well-trained ear will be aware of all of them, at least subconsciously - but you may nd at rst that
one works better for you than the others. You may want to experiment: is it easier for you to think
of the next note as being a perfect fourth higher than the note you are on, or as being the root of the
chord, or as being the fth note in the scale of the key?

As of this writing, petersax-online

23 had many exercises graded from simple to more dicult to help

the beginner practice playing what you hear.

3.2.4 Improvisation
This is

the

24 traditions also use improvisation.

skill you need for jazz. Blues, rock, and many Non-Western

Suggestions

Know your scales and arpeggios. A good improviser, given the name of a chord, can quickly play not
only the notes of the chord but also the scale implied by the chord. Any decent book on playing jazz,
or any teacher familiar with jazz, will introduce the student to these chords and scales.

There are now many book/CD combinations available to help the beginning improviser in many dierent genres and on many dierent instruments. A good book of this type will give the student a chance
to improvise on many familiar tunes, and some also introduce the music theory involved. At the time
of this writing, one source of a large variety of such books was jazzbooks.com

20 "Interval" <http://cnx.org/content/m10867/latest/>
21 "Beginning Harmonic Analysis" <http://cnx.org/content/m11643/latest/>
22 "Triads" <http://cnx.org/content/m10877/latest/>
23 http://www.petersax.com
24 "What Kind of Music is That?" <http://cnx.org/content/m11421/latest/>
25 http://www.jazzbooks.com

25 .

20

CHAPTER 3.

The exercises at the petersax

EAR TRAINING

26 site mentioned above would also be useful for the beginning improviser.

Listen to jazz often. Listen to the improvisers you admire, and if a particular solo really appeals to you,
listen to it many times, nd the notes on your instrument, and then try writing it down as accurately
as you can. Many famous improvisors, when interviewed, mention how useful it was to them to learn
from other soloists by

transcribing

their solos in this way.

Figure out how to play your favorite jazz (or blues or rock)
many pieces in the same genre) on your instrument.

licks

27 that show up in

(short motives

Practice stringing them together in ways that

make sense to you, but are dierent from what you've heard. Add your own variations.

Find a teacher who is familiar with the type of improvisation you want to learn, join a jazz band,
and/or get together with other musicians who also want to practise improvisation and take turns
playing background/rhythm for each other.

3.2.5 Recognizing Intervals and Writing Music Down

This is the skill that allowed Beethoven to continue composing masterpieces even after he became deaf. If
you are interested in composing, arranging, music theory, musicology, or just being able to write down a
tune quickly and accurately, you'll want to be able to make that quick connection between what you hear
and written music.

Suggestions

Before you can do this, you must know your major

28 and minor (Chapter 1) keys and scales and your

29
30
Intervals . You may also want to understand Transposition , since you may nd it easier to work in

some keys than in others.

31 you can play to practice identifying intervals when you hear them. It's an application

Here is a game

(.exe le) that you can play in Windows. Or you can play the same game with a friend. Sit back-toback and take turns playing intervals and guessing what was just played. If you get good at guessing
intervals, see if you can guess the exact notes that were played. (You may be surprised at how well
you can guess the exact notes if they are played on an instrument that you play often.)

32 was a free ear training website that worked well.

As of this writing, Teoria Musical

Once again, practice is the best way to become good at this. Start with tunes that you know well, but
don't know what the (written) notes are. Listen to them in your head (or play a recording) while trying
to write them down. Then play what you have written, noticing where you were correct and where you
made mistakes. Which intervals are you good at hearing? Which do you have trouble identifying? Do
you often mistake one particular interval for another? Do you tend to identify a note by its interval
from the previous note or by its place in the chord or in the key? Answering these questions will help
you improve more quickly.

Some people nd it easier to learn to recognize intervals if they associate each interval with a familiar
tune. (For example, in the familiar song from The Sound of Music that begins "Do, a deer, a female
deer...", all the intervals in the phrase "a female deer" are major thirds, and every interval in the
phrase "someday I'll wish upon a star" in the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is a minor third.)

33 , some people will prefer thinking

The tune should be very familiar, so when trying to hear a tritone

of the beginning of "The Simpsons" theme; others will prefer the beginning of "Maria" from West
Side Story. If you think this method will work for you, try playing the interval you are having trouble

hearing, and see what tune it reminds you of.

26 http://www.petersax.com
27 "Melody": Section Motif <http://cnx.org/content/m11647/latest/#s3>
28 "Major Keys and Scales" <http://cnx.org/content/m10851/latest/>
29 "Interval" <http://cnx.org/content/m10867/latest/>
30 "Transposition: Changing Keys" <http://cnx.org/content/m10668/latest/>
31 See the le at <http://cnx.org/content/m12401/latest/EarTraining.exe>
32 http://www.teoriamusical.net
33 "Interval" <http://cnx.org/content/m10867/latest/#p23b>

21

INDEX

Index of Keywords and Terms

Keywords

are listed by the section with that keyword (page numbers are in parentheses). Keywords

do not necessarily appear in the text of the page. They are merely associated with that section. Ex.
apples, 1.1 (1)

Terms

are referenced by the page they appear on. Ex.

A absolute pitch, 17

Memory, 2(11)
Minor, 2(11)

C chord progressions, 3(17)

minor keys, 1(1)

minor scales, 1(1)

D dorian minor, 1(1), 5

E

apples, 1

modal scales, 6

ear, 3(17), 17

music, 3(17)

ear training, 3(17), 17

music theory, 3(17)

H harmonic minor, 1(1)

N natural minor, 1(1)

natural minor scale, 1

harmonic minor scale, 4

natural minor scales, 4

improvisation, 3(17)
interval, 3(17)

K Key, 2(11)

perfect pitch, 17

R relative major, 3
relative minor, 2, 4

keys, 1(1)

relative pitch, 17

licks, 20

S
M Major, 2(11)

Scale, 2(11)
scales, 1(1)

melodic minor, 1(1)

melodic minor scale, 4

transcribing, 20
tuning, 3(17)

22

Attributions
Collection: Music Fundamentals 3: Minor Scales and Keys
Edited by: Terry B. Ewell
URL: http://cnx.org/content/col10717/1.2/
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Module: "Minor Keys and Scales"
By: Catherine Schmidt-Jones
URL: http://cnx.org/content/m10856/2.20/
Pages: 1-10
Copyright: Catherine Schmidt-Jones
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/1.0
Module: "Learning Major and Minor Scales"
By: Terry B. Ewell
URL: http://cnx.org/content/m25610/1.1/
Pages: 11-15
Copyright: Terry B. Ewell
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Module: "Ear Training"
By: Catherine Schmidt-Jones, Russell Jones
URL: http://cnx.org/content/m12401/1.14/
Pages: 17-20
Copyright: Catherine Schmidt-Jones, Russell Jones
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/1.0

ATTRIBUTIONS

Music Fundamentals 3: Minor Scales and Keys

This collection is the third of ve dealing with the rudiments of music.

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