This lesson is to be followed by study of "The Bonnie Ship" from 

       "The Ultimate Folk Book", which uses chords and bass runs in the key of A minor.

                 ULTIMATE FOLK CHECKPOINTS 1-2-3-4-5-6-7

In order to really learn, understand, and be able to use the knowledge and skills presented so far in Mel Bay, we must expand the field of study.

We need Horizontal Growth now, a volume of material that will give us the opportunity to integrate and assimilate our new knowledge and skill in a practical, and musical way.

That is why we have added the following book to the curriculum. Guidance in this material will, of course, be provided along the way.

Ultimate Folk Guitar Song Collection

You can read Jamey's  review of the book here...........

  Okay, now you are really getting hit with a lot of music theory which contains a lot of musical meaning. So much that it actually took centuries (and one could argue millenia) for what you see on this page to come into being. Of course, we could say the same about the major scale (but I didn't, so I'm saying it about the minor scale!)

Actually, you are are going to LOVE the minor scale, and playing in a minor key. I have never met anyone, who in the process of learning the guitar, did not give a squeal of delight (or in some way show pronounced pleasure), the first time they played a minor chord. And when someone learns a whole piece in a minor key, they start to notice that there is something especially appealing, especially beautiful, about minor keys.

It's because of the emotional quality of the minor tonality. It is dark, it is sad, it is mournful even! Now, I guess that says something about people, doesn't it? We like that kind of stuff!

But there is something more to the minor sound. It is beautiful, as you'll see.

Now, the first thing to realize about a minor scale is this: the spaces between the notes are different than the spaces between notes in a major scale. Further, it is the spaces (in pitch) between the notes that give music its emotional power. The technical name for those spaces is INTERVALS, and you should know that because you should be doing what I said earlier,  studying the material at MusicTheory.net on Intervals

The most important interval here is the one between the first note and the third note. Notice that whereas the Major Scale has a Whole Step (two frets on guitar) between the 2nd and 3rd note, the Minor Scale has only a Half Step (one fret on guitar) between the 2nd and 3rd notes.

This makes the space between the 1st note and the 3rd note different as well, of course. And that space, 1 and 1/2 steps (or 3 frets) is called a minor third, and it is a beautiful sound. It it the sound that makes a major chord different than a minor chord.

Play the two chords below.

The difference you hear is because of the fact that the finger you remove to play the second chord is turning a G# into a G natural. This changes the Major Third of the first chord (E to G#) into a Minor Third (E to G natural). So the chord "turns dark" in sound. You like it, don't you!

The next thing to do is to compare the sound a Major Scale with the sound of a Minor Scale that starts from the same note. We will compare the A minor scale to an A major scale (and log that fact away in your head, there are two main types of scales, Major and Minor, just like chords).

Play this A Major scale:

Now, compare it to this A minor scale: 

Listen to one after the other and compare...

Do you hear how that 3rd note turns the scale "dark". The 6th and 7th notes help too. Notice, they are different than the 6th and 7th notes of the Major Scale. Again, if this seems hard to grasp, you need to do the recommended additional study at www.musictheory.net.

What Does "Relative Minor" mean?

Now that all of that has been explained, you should think about the things Mel tells you at the top of the page. The phrase "Relative Minor" is not to be thought of like the phrases Natural Minor, or Harmonic Minor, or Melodic Minor (further down the page). Relative Minor is not a type of Minor Scale, like the other terms, it only means "this scale is related to a major scale".

So, log that fact away as well, every major scale is "related" to a minor scale, and every minor scale is "related" to a major scale.

The nature of the relationship between a Major Scale and its Relative Minor Scale is the fact that they contain all the same notes. The only difference is the starting note, and that makes a big difference!

What Does "Pure  Minor" mean?

If you take ANY major scale, (and at this point, we are supposed to only know the Cmajor scale), and you go to the 6th note of that scale, and play from there until you hit the same letter name note again, you will have played a "scale inside a scale", or, the A to A scale that lies inside the C to C scale. Thus (2 octaves of the scale are used):

C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C

The big bold letters are the notes of the A minor, sitting inside the notes of the C major. That is the relationship, they kind of live inside each other, how intimate!

 If you play that A minor just as you find it inside the C major, it is called Pure Minor. They had to call it that, because, musicians being naturally adventurous types, started to mess with it right away, and make that Pure Minor a little "impure". They started to change that nice Pure Minor Scale.

What Does "Harmonic  Minor" mean?

They figured they could liven things up a bit, if they made that next to the last note go to the last note by a half step, instead of the whole step (this would make it resemble the major scale in that respect). This gives us a great sounding scale used in all music, classical to "minor rock". Play that scale as it is shown in Mel Bay, and you will see what I mean. When I learned this Harmonic Minor Scale, my teacher told me it was called "gypsy minor", but he's the only one I ever heard call it that!

So, we have Pure Minor, with all the notes just as they are found in the Relative Major scale, and we have Harmonic Minor, with the 7th note raised a half step, in this case, G#.

What Does "Melodic  Minor" mean?

The Harmonic Minor scale had one drawback.  Everyone agreed that the 1/2 step between the 7th and 8th notes was cool, and had a good effect, especially when that note (the raised 7th) combined with other scale notes to make chords. But when the scale was sung, and used to make melodies, it was a little awkward, because of the big space left between the 6th and 7th notes (by raising the 7th note).

The solution was to even it out by also raising the 6th note as well as the 7th , but, they are only raised on the way up the scale, they are lowered going back down.

 This is called the "Melodic Minor Scale".  One of the best examples of this is the opening melody to the song "Yesterday" by the Beatles.  Look at it and listen to it:

"Yesterday"

Notice the use of the melodic minor scale in the 2nd measure 6th and 7th tone raised going up,  in the 4th measure, they are lowered going back down.  Also, notice, the song moves in and out of C major and Aminor, beginning in C in the first measure, and moving to A minor in the 2nd (the chords would be C to E to Am).

At the bottom of page 31 we see the Principal Chords in A minor, meaning the chords built from the 1st, 4th, and 5th notes of the scale, and called the I, IV and V of the scale (Roman numerals are usually used.) Notice the I and IV are minor, and the V is Dominant 7, as in the major keys.

This lesson is to be followed by study of "The Bonnie Ship" from "The Ultimate Folk Book", which uses chords and bass runs in the key of A minor.

top