In this lesson, I’m going to teach you how to build Harmonic Minor Scales. The Harmonic 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 Melodic Minor Scale and the Natural Minor Scale. In this lesson, we are going to be focusing on the Harmonic Minor Scale. It is very important for you to know all the 12 Harmonic Minor Scales because certain songs are based on the Harmonic Minor Scale i.e. there are songs that use most of the notes or all of the notes of the Harmonic Minor Scale.
Now, let me teach you how to build a Harmonic Minor Scale for any musical note. The musical note that you want to build a Harmonic Minor Scale for will be the first note of that particular Harmonic Minor Scale and that Harmonic Minor Scale will also be named with the name of its first musical note. So, if we want to build a Harmonic Minor Scale for the note C , the first note of this Harmonic Minor Scale will be the note C and this Harmonic Minor Scale will be known as the C Harmonic Minor Scale.
A Harmonic 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 Harmonic 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 Harmonic Minor Scale. You can use either of these 2 methods to build a Harmonic Minor Scale for any musical note. Let me start with the first Method:
Method 1
If you choose any Natural Minor Scale and you increase its 7th note by a half step, this will give you the Harmonic Minor Scale. For example, the notes of the A Natural Minor Scale are: A , B , C , D , E , F , G , A ; the 7th note of the A Natural Minor Scale is the note G. If you increase the 7th note (i.e. the note G) by a half step, the 7th note will become the note G#. Therefore the A Harmonic Minor Scale will have the following notes: A , B , C , D , E , F , G# , A
Method 2
The other method that you can use to build a Harmonic Minor Scale is to use a Musical Formula. The musical formula for building a Harmonic Minor Scale is:
Whole Step , Half Step , Whole Step , Whole Step , Half Step , 3 Half Steps , Half Step
So, if you want to build a Harmonic 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 Harmonic Minor Scale for note A, the first note of that Harmonic Minor Scale will be the note A since it is the note A that we want to build a Harmonic Minor Scale for.
The Harmonic Minor Scale will also be named as the A Harmonic Minor Scale since it is the note A that we want to build a Harmonic Minor Scale for.
The 2nd note of a Harmonic Minor Scale will be the note that is a whole step away on the right of the first note of that Harmonic Minor Scale. So, in the A Harmonic 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 Harmonic Minor Scale will be the note that is a half step away on the right of the 2nd note of that Harmonic Minor Scale. So, in the A Harmonic 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 Harmonic Minor Scale will be the note that is a whole step away on the right of the 3rd note of that Harmonic Minor Scale. So, in the A Harmonic Minor Scale, the note that is a whole step away from the note C on the right is the note D.
The 5th note of a Harmonic Minor Scale will be the note that is a whole step away on the right of the 4th note of that Harmonic Minor Scale. So, in the A Harmonic 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 Harmonic Minor Scale will be the note that is a half step away on the right of the 5th note of that Harmonic Minor Scale. So, in the A Harmonic 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 Harmonic Minor Scale will be the note that is 3 half steps away on the right of the 6th note of that Harmonic Minor Scale. So, in the A Harmonic Minor Scale, the note that is 3 half steps away from the note F on the right is the note G#.
The 8th note of a Harmonic Minor Scale will be the note that is a half step away on the right of the 7th note of that Harmonic Minor Scale. So, in the A Harmonic Minor Scale, the note that is a half step away from the note G# on the right is the note A.
So, the musical notes of the A Harmonic 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 Harmonic Minor Scale for any musical note.
All the 12 Harmonic Minor Scales are:
Harmonic Minor Scales
C Harmonic 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
Note 8: C
C# Harmonic 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 Harmonic 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 Harmonic 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
Note 8: E flat
E Harmonic 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 Harmonic 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
Note 8: F
F# Harmonic 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 Harmonic 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 Harmonic 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
Note 8: A flat
A Harmonic 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 Harmonic 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
Note 8: B flat
B Harmonic 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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