In this lesson, I’m going to teach you how to build Natural Minor Scales. The Natural Minor Scale is one of the 3 types of the Minor Scale that we have. The other 2 types of the Minor Scale that we have are the Harmonic Minor Scale and the Melodic Minor Scale. In this lesson, we are going to be focusing on the Natural Minor Scale. It is very important for you to know all the 12 Natural Minor Scales because certain songs are based on the Natural Minor Scale i.e. there are songs that use most of the notes or all of the notes of the Natural Minor Scale.
Now, let me teach you how to build a Natural Minor Scale for any musical note. The musical note that you want to build a Natural Minor Scale for will be the first note of that particular Natural Minor Scale and that Natural Minor Scale will also be named with the name of its first musical note. So, if we want to build a Natural Minor Scale for the note A , the first note of this Natural Minor Scale will be the note A and this Natural Minor Scale will be known as the A Natural Minor Scale.
A Natural Minor Scale is made up of the same notes irregardless of whether it is played in an ascending way or a descending way i.e. a Natural Minor Scale can be played in an ascending and in a descending way with the same musical notes.
In this article, I will teach you 2 methods that you can use to build any Natural Minor Scale. You can use either of these 2 methods to build a Natural Minor Scale for any musical note. Let me start with the first Method:
Method 1
The musical formula for building a Natural Minor Scale is:
Whole Step , Half Step , Whole Step , Whole Step , Half Step , Whole Step , Whole Step
So, if you want to build a Natural Minor Scale for any musical note, all you have to do is to use the musical formula above. Let me give you an example: if you want to build a Natural Minor Scale for note A, the first note of that Natural Minor Scale will be the note A since it is the note A that we want to build a Natural Minor Scale for.
The Natural Minor Scale will also be named as the A Natural Minor Scale since it is the note A that we want to build a Natural Minor Scale for.
The 2nd note of a Natural Minor Scale will be the note that is a whole step away on the right of the first note of that Natural Minor Scale. So, in the A Natural Minor Scale, the note that is a whole step away from the note A on the right is the note B.
The 3rd note of a Natural Minor Scale will be the note that is a half step away on the right of the 2nd note of that Natural Minor Scale. So, in the A Natural Minor Scale, the note that is a half step away from the note B on the right is the note C.
The 4th note of a Natural Minor Scale will be the note that is a whole step away on the right of the 3rd note of that Natural Minor Scale. So, in the A Natural Minor Scale, the note that is a half step away from the note C on the right is the note D.
The 5th note of a Natural Minor Scale will be the note that is a whole step away on the right of the 4th note of that Natural Minor Scale. So, in the A Natural Minor Scale, the note that is a whole step away from the note D on the right is the note E.
The 6th note of a Natural Minor Scale will be the note that is a half step away on the right of the 5th note of that Natural Minor Scale. So, in the A Natural Minor Scale, the note that is a half step away from the note E on the right is the note F.
The 7th note of a Natural Minor Scale will be the note that is a whole step away on the right of the 6th note of that Natural Minor Scale. So, in the A Natural Minor Scale, the note that is a whole step away from the note F on the right is the note G.
The 8th note of a Natural Minor Scale will be the note that is a whole step away on the right of the 7th note of that Natural Minor Scale. So, in the A Natural Minor Scale, the note that is a whole step away from the note G on the right is the note A.
So, the musical notes of the A Natural Minor Scale are: A , B , C , D , E , F , G , A
Method 2
Now, let me teach you an alternative method that you can use to build a Natural Minor Scale for any musical note.
The concept of a Natural Minor Scale and its Relative Major Scale
Each Natural Minor Scale has what is called a Relative Major Scale i.e. each Natural Minor Scale has a particular Major Scale that it is related to. What does it mean for a Natural Minor Scale to be related to a particular Major Scale? It means that a Natural Minor Scale consists of the same musical notes that a particular Major Scale consists of. In other words, it means that a Natural Minor Scale shares the same musical notes with a particular Major Scale. However, one thing that you should take note of is that even though a Natural Minor Scale and its Relative Major Scale share the same musical notes, the order of the musical notes in both the Natural Minor Scale and its Relative Major Scale are not the Same.
Now, the question is how do you find the Relative Major Scale of a Natural Minor Scale? In order to do this, locate the musical note that is 3 half steps away on the right of the first musical note of the Natural Minor Scale that you want to locate its Relative Major Scale. The Major Scale that is named with the name of this musical note that is 3 half steps away from the first note of this Natural Minor Scale will be the Relative Major Scale that is related to that particular Natural Minor Scale. So, for example, if you want to find the Relative Major Scale of the A Natural Minor Scale, the first step will be to locate the note that is 3 half steps away from the note A. The musical note that is 3 half steps away from the note A is the note C. Therefore, this means that the C Major Scale is related to the A Natural Minor Scale i.e. both the C Major Scale and the A Natural Minor Scale share the same musical notes.
So, in order to build a Natural Minor Scale for a particular musical note, all you have to do is to choose the notes of its Relative Major Scale by starting from the 6th note of that Relative Major Scale and finishing on the next 6th note of the same Relative Major Scale; this next 6th note is an octave away from the initial 6th note that you started on. Just in case if you don’t know what an octave is, an octave is a musical interval between a musical note and another musical note that belongs to the same pitch class. So, for example, the musical note that is an octave away from the note C is the next note C that is either on the left or the right of the Piano. Let me give you another example, the musical note that is an octave away from the note D# is the next note D# that is either on the left or the right of the Piano. In other words, a musical note that is an octave away from another musical note is basically the same musical note that is 12 half steps away from the initial musical note.
So, for example, in order to build a Natural Minor Scale for the note A. The first thing that I’m going to do is to determine its Relative Major Scale. The Relative Major Scale of the A Natural Minor Scale is the C Major Scale. The next step is to choose the notes of the C Major Scale by starting on the 6th note of the C Major Scale and ending on the next 6th note of the C Major Scale. Doing this will give us the following musical notes: A , B , C , D , E , F , G, A
Therefore, the notes of the A Natural Minor Scale are: A , B , C , D , E , F , G , A
In Summary, you can use either of the 2 methods that I’ve taught in this article to build a Natural Minor Scale for any musical note.
All the 12 Natural Minor Scales are:
C Natural Minor Scale
Note 1: C
Note 2: D
Note 3: E flat
Note 4: F
Note 5: G
Note 6: A flat
Note 7: B flat
Note 8: C
C# Natural Minor Scale
Note 1: C#
Note 2: D#
Note 3: E
Note 4: F#
Note 5: G#
Note 6: A
Note 7: B
Note 8: C#
D Natural Minor Scale
Note 1: D
Note 2: E
Note 3: F
Note 4: G
Note 5: A
Note 6: B Flat
Note 7: C
Note 8: D
E flat Natural Minor Scale
Note 1: E flat
Note 2: F
Note 3: G flat
Note 4: A flat
Note 5: B flat
Note 6: C flat
Note 7: D flat
Note 8: E flat
E Natural Minor Scale
Note 1: E
Note 2: F#
Note 3: G
Note 4: A
Note 5: B
Note 6: C
Note 7: D
Note 8: E
F Natural Minor Scale
Note 1: F
Note 2: G
Note 3: A flat
Note 4: B flat
Note 5: C
Note 6: D flat
Note 7: E flat
Note 8: F
F# Natural Minor Scale
Note 1: F#
Note 2: G#
Note 3: A
Note 4: B
Note 5: C#
Note 6: D
Note 7: E
Note 8: F#
G Natural Minor Scale
Note 1: G
Note 2: A
Note 3: B flat
Note 4: C
Note 5: D
Note 6: E flat
Note 7: F
Note 8: G
A flat Natural Minor Scale
Note 1: A flat
Note 2: B flat
Note 3: C flat
Note 4: D flat
Note 5: E flat
Note 6: F flat
Note 7: G flat
Note 8: A flat
A Natural Minor Scale
Note 1: A
Note 2: B
Note 3: C
Note 4: D
Note 5: E
Note 6: F
Note 7: G
Note 8: A
B flat Natural Minor Scale
Note 1: B flat
Note 2: C
Note 3: D flat
Note 4: E flat
Note 5: F
Note 6: G flat
Note 7: A flat
Note 8: B flat
B Natural Minor Scale
Note 1: B
Note 2: C#
Note 3: D
Note 4: E
Note 5: F#
Note 6: G
Note 7: A
Note 8: B
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