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GMC Forum _ THEORY _ Music Theory Series Part 4- Introduction To Scales 2

Posted by: quadrium Mar 30 2011, 09:34 AM

Hello and welcome to the Music Theory Series.In todays lesson we will continue with the scales.Lets begin.

We have covered Major Scale, Minor Scale, Pentatonic Scale and the Blues Scale so far. Now lets continue with the Melodic
Minor Scale.

The Melodic Minor Scale is the same as Natural Minor Scale with the exception that the sixth and seventh tones are
raised by a semitone(half step)
when the scale is ascending.We said ascending because, when the scale is descending, the scale
becomes same as the Natural Minor Scale.If you didn't understand, lets see it with an example:

(#=sharp,b=flat)

The general formula of the ascending Melodic Minor Scale is:

1 2 b3 4 5 6 7 8

The general formula of the descending Melodic Minor Scale is:

1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 8 (same as the natural minor scale)



Lets say, we want to find the C Melodic Minor Scale:

C Major Scale is: C D E F G A B C

If we apply the general formula, we get:

C D Eb F G A B C

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/scalegenerator

If you confused about why i haven't raised the sixth and seventh tones as i said before. The sixth and seventh tones
are raised only if you want to find the Melodic Minor Scale of given Natural Minor Scale. The general formula i gave is universal.
As you see using that formula i have found the Melodic Minor scale of given Major Scale.

Lets make an example with a given Natural Minor Scale:

Lets say we want to find the A Melodic Minor Scale:


A Minor Scale is: A B C D E F G A

If we raise 6th and 7th degrees we get A Melodic Minor Scale.

A B C D E F# G# A


Now we can find the same scale from A Major Scale using the general formula:

A Major Scale is: A B c# D E F# G# A

If we apply the formula to this scale, we get:

A B C D E F# G# A

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/scalegenerator

So thats it for the melodic minor scale. If you have questions you can always ask.



Now lets continue with the Harmonic Minor Scale:

The Harmonic Minor Scale is the same as Natural Minor Scale with the exception that the seventh tone is
raised by a semitone(half step) both ascending and descending.

The general formula of the Harmonic Minor Scale is:

1 2 b3 4 5 b6 7 8

You can apply this formula to any given scale to find its Harmonic Minor.

Lets say we want to find C Harmonic Minor Scale:

C Major Scale is: C D E F G A B C

If we apply the formula we get:

C D Eb F G Ab B C


We can get this scale from given C Minor Scale with a raised seventh:

C Minor Scale: C D Eb F G Ab Bb C

If we raise the seventh, we get:

C D Eb F G Ab B C

[url=http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/scalegenerator][/url

Now we have covered Melodic and Harmonic Minor Scales. If you have questions you can ask from here or pm me. We will
continue with the Chromatic and Whole-tone scales in next lesson. Keep rocking cool.gif


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