---
title: "Minor Scales: Natural, Harmonic and Melodic · Piakno"
description: "A minor scale is a different arrangement of steps: whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole, whole. What separates it from major is the third degree, a half step lower — the one note that decides bright or dark."
url: "https://piakno.com/theory/minor-scale"
lang: "en"
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---

# Minor scales

> A minor scale is a different arrangement of steps: whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole, whole. What separates it from major is the third degree, a half step lower — the one note that decides bright or dark.

A minor uses exactly the same keys as C major — every one of them white — and sounds nothing like it. The difference is not which notes but which one is home. Starting on A, the third note is C, three half steps up: a minor third. Starting on C, the third note is E, four half steps up: a major third.

*A natural minor: A B C D E F G A, not a black key in sight.*

That is what relative keys are. Every major key has a minor that shares its key signature, with its home note a minor third below: C major and A minor, G major and E minor, F major and D minor.

In natural minor the seventh degree is a whole step below home, which does not pull very hard. So in practice composers raise it by a half step, producing the harmonic minor scale — and that is why minor pieces are full of accidentals that are not in the key signature.

*A harmonic minor: raise the seventh, G to G♯, and the step home has a pull again.*

> There is also melodic minor: raise the sixth and seventh going up, then use natural minor coming back down. It behaves like patching the road only in the direction you need it — descending has no need to push toward home.

## Common questions

### What are the three kinds of minor scale?

Natural minor keeps the plain key signature. Harmonic minor raises the seventh degree a half step; melodic minor raises the sixth and seventh going up and returns to natural minor coming down. In A minor, harmonic adds G♯, and melodic adds F♯ and G♯ on the way up.

### What is a relative minor?

It is the minor key that shares a major key’s signature. It starts on the sixth note of the major scale, a minor third below the major key’s home note: A minor for C major, E minor for G major.

### Why are there three kinds of minor scale?

Raising the seventh gives the scale a note that pulls toward home, but it leaves a gap of three half steps between the sixth and seventh. Raising the sixth too, on the way up, closes that gap.

## The course works through this in:

- [Lesson 68 · What a minor key is](https://piakno.com/course/piano-foundations/lesson/68)

## Related entries

- [Key signature](https://piakno.com/theory/key-signature)
- [Major and minor triads](https://piakno.com/theory/major-and-minor-triads)
- [The dominant seventh chord](https://piakno.com/theory/dominant-seventh)

- [Theory reference](https://piakno.com/theory)