Question when writing dance music in minor key

S

Suprarick

New member
Hey guys,

I'm trying to figure out a way to write in minor and get confused when seeing there are harmonic, melodic, and natural minors. I sometimes like to label my midi keyboard with colored dots to represent the correct keys for a particular scale. The issue is, there are three possible combinations of keys to make up a certain minor scale (harmonic, melodic, natural).

Is one supposed to be for when going up the scale, one down? What about the third possible way?

Thanks so much.
Rick
 
I see a few problems with this question:
1) Those aren't three combinations of keys that make up a scale, they're three separate scales. Each with its own set of intervals.
2) Neither one is assigned to a certain direction in a song. You can make an entire track with either one of those scales by themselves. You can use more than one of those scales to make the song, but it's perfectly ok to use only one.
3) If you use FL, you can make the piano roll highlight all the notes in whatever scale you choose to work with. (Not really a problem with your question, but I thought it would help. Nobody should ever have to defile their own keyboard with markings unless it's a girls phone number.)

Hope that helps.
 
Deezel said:
I see a few problems with this question:
1) Those aren't three combinations of keys that make up a scale, they're three separate scales. Each with its own set of intervals.
2) Neither one is assigned to a certain direction in a song. You can make an entire track with either one of those scales by themselves. You can use more than one of those scales to make the song, but it's perfectly ok to use only one.
3) If you use FL, you can make the piano roll highlight all the notes in whatever scale you choose to work with. (Not really a problem with your question, but I thought it would help. Nobody should ever have to defile their own keyboard with markings unless it's a girls phone number.)

Hope that helps.
Click to expand...
My man!
 
'cept of course that the melodic minor has an ascending and descending form:

AscendingDescending
-T-S-T-T-T-T-S-|-T-T-S-T-T-S-T-
A-B-C-D-E-F#-G#-A|A-G-F-E-D-C-B-A
1-2-b3-4-5-6-7-8|8-b7-b6-5-4-b3-2-1
AscendingDescending

if you stick with only the ascending form then it is known as the jazz minor

the melodic minor is so named as it allows certain melodic figurations to be used depending one what note comes next in the phrase after scale tones 6 and 7 - if the note is above then scale tone 6 or 7 is raised; if it is lower then scale tone 6 or 7 is lowered to match the natural minor scale

harmonic minor is used to derive chords if you are being strictly classical/baroque in harmonic purpose; it raises scale tone 7 and allows for the construction of a major chord on scale tone 5 leading to a dominant 7th chord above the same scale tone for use in cadences

natural minor is used in you are being modal or not caring about whether you get to hear a strong perfect cadence

the rest is purely what you want to do with it
 
no, ddream, you are wrong, in fl you can have a ghost set of notes based on the current scale or active chord(s) - do not know the key combination but it is in the manual
 
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There's two ways to do it that I know of.

In the piano roll...
1) Click the down arrow in the top left corner-->chord-->pick a scale/chord. Then just click the note that you want to use as the root note.
2) Click the down arrow in the top left corner-->helpers-->detect score scale. You have to click a few notes in the piano roll for this to work though.
 
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