Apologies for clickbaity title but there's quite a prevalent misconception I would like to address.
Minor key =\= natural minor scale.
Being in a minor key actually can involve a combination of four scales:
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C natural minor: C D Eb F G Ab Bb C
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C harmonic minor: C D Eb F G Ab B C
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C dorian: C D Eb F G A Bb C
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C melodic minor: C D Eb F G A B C
Essentially the sixth and seventh notes from the scale can be either natural or flat.
These scales are all minor and when writing in a minor key you can switch freely between them, and use the chords that are diatonic to each scale
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C natural minor chords: Cm, D dim, Eb, Fm, Gm, Ab, Bb
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C harmonic minor chords: Cm, D dim, E aug, Fm, G, Ab, B dim
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C dorian chords: Cm, Dm, Eb, F, Gm, A dim, Bb
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C melodic minor chords: Cm, Dm, E aug, F, G, Adim, B dim
BUT
Think carefully when choosing which scale to use over a certain chord. For example, if you are writing in C minor and decide to use an Bb major chord (Bb D F), it makes sense to avoid using the harmonic minor or melodic minor scale which contain B natural.
Each flavour of minor has a different advantage/disadvantage to it
- Natural minor- neutral but ambiguous (could be mistaken for the relative major or other modes)
- Dorian minor- neutral but ambiguous and slightly more major sounding than natural minor due to the raised sixth
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Harmonic minor- allows use of V-Im perfect cadence (good for resolving and reinforcing the minor-ness) but contains unusual augmented 2nd interval between degrees 6 and 7 of the scale)- bad for traditional sounding melodies
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Melodic minor: allows use of perfect cadences and doesn't contain any augmented seconds but fewer major and minor triads available in the chordset
Submitted December 19, 2016 at 09:10AM by Scrapheaper https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/5j62bd/why_everything_you_know_about_minor_keys_is_wrong/?utm_source=ifttt
Javier Rodriguez
Monday, December 19, 2016