Harmonic + Natural Minor Options

[Adam]

Hello! Currently I'm studying Albinoni's Adagio and I'm wondering what is it that makes it tick. I can hear a Natural Minor scale as well as Harmonic Minor. I know there are more pieces like this, so I'm wondering how does it happen. In modern music these two not necessarily get along well. These scales are different in 7th step, so it's not even about modes.

How can I learn to use them interchangeably and still make it sound good? My friend says there's a classical harmony on which all the classical pieces are built and there's a modern harmony that's like "It's good as long as it sounds good. Doesn't need to fit the classical rules." But he doesn't want to elaborate.

My only idea is: the certain chords in the background could make the #7 sound well; but how to do it without any backing track? I'm familiar with both scales quite well for a beginner but I can only use them separately. What should I learn to be able to combine them?

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

[Storm Linnebjerg]

Without going too deep into this, a lot of classical music were built around the melodic minor, and the approach was often that ascending we would want the note value of the major 7th to lead into the octave, as it leads quite a lot different and better than a minor 7th.

That, however, gave a step of 1½ semitone before reaching the major 7th, which was a bit unpleasant, maybe somewhat exotic sounding, so they would move the 6th up half a step. This lead to the melodic minor scale. In A minor that would be: A B C D E F# G#. However when we descend in a melody you don't have that same leading tone and need for the semitone step between G# and A, so they would instead revert to natural minor again.

There are a lot, lot, lot more "rules" and approaches. Neopolitan 6ths etc.

This course opens today and I can recommend enrolling for free and see what you can use. I have never quite gotten through it, but I may give it a go again:

https://www.coursera.org/learn/classical-composition

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

[Phil66]

Without going too deep into this, a lot of classical music were built around the melodic minor, and the approach was often that ascending we would want the note value of the major 7th to lead into the octave, as it leads quite a lot different and better than a minor 7th.

That, however, gave a step of 1½ semitone before reaching the major 7th, which was a bit unpleasant, maybe somewhat exotic sounding, so they would move the 6th up half a step. This lead to the melodic minor scale. In A minor that would be: A B C D E F# G#. However when we descend in a melody you don't have that same leading tone and need for the semitone step between G# and A, so they would instead revert to natural minor again.

For the first time ever, that actually made sense to me Thanks Ben

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!