Question about minor scale tone chords...

D

DaKillaB

Guest
I've been told that to get a more mellow/sad sound I should use minor scales instead of major scales I've been trying to work this out, but I'm having a little trouble figuring out the the scale tone chords...

from what I know, the scale tones in a major scale are major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminished

and then for a minor scale its : minor, diminshed, major, minor, minor, major, major,

so the C major scale its Cmajor Dminor Eminor Fmajor Gmajor Aminor Bdiminished

so now if I wanted to use the C minor scale, the notes in the scale would be: C D D# F G A B right? << but if u do it like that u cant play the scale tone chords properly cause if u play D diminshed its going to have F# in the chord which is not in the scale...

so am I looking at this wrong?

let me know...
thanks
 
thanks for the response,

I looked up the D diminshed chord on chord house and yea my bad theres no f# but, the A is supposed to be flatted, that still doesnt make sense to me though because Aflat is not an available note in the minor scale...

Also I looked up the scale real quick and on chord house they have 3 versions, harmonic minor, melodic minor ascending and melodic minor descending... << how come theres a difference and when should each be used?
 
hype the producer said:
Not really, C minor is C D Eb F G Ab Bb C
Click to expand...


To add onto that, D F A is the chord of D Minor...... notice there are 2 notes between D and F..and 3 notes between F and A....Thats a minor chord set up.

Diminished chord setups have 2 notes between each key. Example: there are 2 notes between D and F...and 2 notes between F and Ab..
D Diminished = D F Ab
 
wow I'm an idiot.

The scale of C Minor is actually: C D Eb F G Ab Bb

so the 2nd chord would actually be: D F Ab


as for the different kinds of minor scales.. I'm not too sure, haven't studied that far yet.

sorry for the misinformed reply earlier.
 
DaKillaB said:
thanks for the response,

I looked up the D diminshed chord on chord house and yea my bad theres no f# but, the A is supposed to be flatted, that still doesnt make sense to me though because Aflat is not an available note in the minor scale...

Also I looked up the scale real quick and on chord house they have 3 versions, harmonic minor, melodic minor ascending and melodic minor descending... << how come theres a difference and when should each be used?
Click to expand...


I stay away from the Melodic Minor's because apparently in Melodic minor....you ascend up the scale in the Melodic Minor, but you descend the scale in Natural Minor.....so its different..and I dont like that yet. I'm personally not advanced to keep that in mind while playing, so I like to ascend and descend the same. So I usually stick to Natural/Harmonic minor
 
thats cool typhy,

so then basically when I look to use a minor scale I'm going to be using what chord house calls the harmonic minor then, not the melodic minor...
that makes more sense that way I guess because the tone chords fit now...
do on of yall know why theres 3 kinds though?
 
quantumleap said:
To add onto that, D F A is the chord of D Minor...... notice there are 2 notes between D and F..and 3 notes between F and A....Thats a minor chord set up.

Diminished chord setups have 2 notes between each key. Example: there are 2 notes between D and F...and 2 notes between F and Ab..
D Diminished = D F Ab
Click to expand...


^^ Exactly. To add onto that, about harmonic and melodic minor (this was natural minor)

So natural C minor is C D Eb F G Ab Bb C

Harmonic C minor is C D Eb F G Ab B C

and melodic C minor is C D Eb F G A B C

i hope you see the pattern here

but as quantumleap said, melodic isn't the same ascending and descending so...
 
actually, hold up,

so the C minor scale tone chords are:
C minor, C D# G
D diminshed, D F G#
D# major, D# G A# << that doesnt fit...
F minor, F G# C << that doesnt fit...
G minor, G A# D
G #major, G# C D#
B major, B D# F# << that doesnt fit either...


am I doing it right?
 
hype the producer said:

^^ Exactly. To add onto that, about harmonic and melodic minor (this was natural minor)

So natural C minor is C D Eb F G Ab Bb C

Harmonic C minor is C D Eb F G Ab B C

and melodic C minor is C D Eb F G A B C

i hope you see the pattern here

but as quantumleap said, melodic isn't the same ascending and descending so...
Click to expand...

yep...in the Harmonic scale...you raise the 7th note a half step..
In the melodic Scale, you raise the 6th and 7th note

When you ascend in Melodic: C - D - Eb - F - G - A - B - C
You descend in Natural Minor: C - D - Eb - F - G - Ab - Bb - C
 
DaKillaB said:
actually, hold up,

so the C minor scale tone chords are:
C minor, C D# G
D diminshed, D F G#
D# major, D# G A# << that doesnt fit...
F minor, F G# C << that doesnt fit...
G minor, G A# D
G #major, G# C D#
B major, B D# F# << that doesnt fit either...


am I doing it right?
Click to expand...

Actually, last chord goes Bb D F, and what do you mean it doesn't fit? Everything fits perfectly
 
Last edited:
It should be:

C Eb G
D F Ab
Eb Bb G
F Ab C
G Bb D
Ab C Eb
Bb D F

This is the Natural Minor scale.. which is the one you are talking about, and is the most commonly used.
 
Last edited:
the D# major, A# isnt in the scale so you can't make that chord

F minor fits, my bad

and then B major, the F# is not in the scale, so you can't make that chord either...

lol, my bad if I'm completely missing the obvious, i think I might be thinking too hard, lol


****
wait why is the last note Bb or A# i thought it should be a B

****
oh ok ok, so then ya'll are using the melodic minor descending notes...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Natural minor scale is:

C D Eb F G Ab Bb C

you shouldn't be using #s because there are no sharps in that scale, only flats.

D# is Eb
A# is Bb
 
ok ok,
I think I get it now,
Ima try it out and see what happens...

good lookin out...
 
All right - jeez I didn't log on when I initially thought I should and look at what happens :lol: (no offense to anyone here).

DaKillaB said:
thats cool typhy,

so then basically when I look to use a minor scale I'm going to be using what chord house calls the harmonic minor then, not the melodic minor...
that makes more sense that way I guess because the tone chords fit now...
do on of yall know why theres 3 kinds though?
Click to expand...

In the following discussion, a scale tone number with a flat in front, such b3, can be read as "Flat 3" or minor 3rd above the starting note. In the Roman numerals the lower case numbers are chords with a minor 3rd and the upper case numbers are chords with a major 3rd. We then add #5/b5 to show the quality of the 5th as well.

Three types of minor scale

Natural minor
Based on the notes of its relative major, it is the sixth mode of the major scale also called the Aeolian Mode or Aeolian Minor Mode.

In your example, the notes are:
1 ~ C
2 ~ D
b3 ~ Eb
4 ~ F
5 ~ G
b6 ~ Ab
b7 ~ Bb
1 ~ C.

The mistake that you have made in naming them as D# and G# is in ignoring the need to have one of each pitch family in the scale.

Chords built above the Natural Minor Scale are
i ~ C-Eb-G ~ C minor ~ 1-b3-5
iib5 ~ D-F-Ab ~ D dim ~ 2-4-b6
III ~ Eb-G-Bb ~ Eb ~ b3-5-b7
iv ~ F-Ab-C ~ F minor ~ 4-b6-1
v ~ G-Bb-D ~ G minor ~ 5-b7-2
bVI ~ Ab-C-Eb ~ Ab ~ b6-1-b3
bVII ~ Bb-D-F ~ Bb ~ b7-2-4

Harmonic minor
The harmonic minor was created to provide the note needed to make the dominant chord a major chord, thus providing a stronger sense of finish in minor harmony.

In C minor, the notes are:
1 ~ C
2 ~ D
b3 ~ Eb
4 ~ F
5 ~ G
b6 ~ Ab
7 ~ B
1 ~ C.


Chords built above the Harmonic Minor Scale are
i ~ C-Eb-G ~ C minor ~ 1-b3-5
iib5 ~ D-F-Ab ~ D dim ~ 2-4-b6
III#5 ~ Eb-G-B ~ Eb Aug ~ b3-5-7
iv ~ F-Ab-C ~ F ~ 4-b6-1
V ~ G-B-D ~ G ~ 5-7-2
bVI ~ Ab-C-Eb ~ Ab ~ b6-1-b3
viib5 ~ B-D-F ~ B dim ~ 7-2-4

Melodic minor
is the nearest in structure to the Major scale, haveing only one note changed. the Melodic minor is an ascending scale only unless you use it ina jazz context, where it is known as the jazz minor and is played ascending and descending with the same pattern.

In C minor, the notes are:
1 ~ C
2 ~ D
b3 ~ Eb
4 ~ F
5 ~ G
6 ~ A
7 ~ B
1 ~ C.

Although the Melodic minor scale is not generally used for creating chords, it is possible to do so.

Chords built above the Melodic Minor Scale are
i ~ C-Eb-G ~ C minor ~ 1-b3-5
ii ~ D-F-A ~ D minor ~ 2-4-6
III#5 ~ Eb-G-B ~ Eb Aug ~ b3-5-7
IV ~ F-A-C ~ F ~ 4-6-1
V ~ G-B-D ~ G ~ 5-7-2
vib5 ~ A-C-Eb ~ A dim ~ 6-1-b3
viib5 ~ B-D-F ~ B dim ~ 7-2-4



You might also be interested in the following post:

https://www.futureproducers.com/for...t-key-scales-chords-help-361875/#post49084031

and looking at my tutorial files found in my sig link.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top