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Natural and Harmonic Minor Scales

Robert Mussatti 91 lessons

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In the harmonized natural minor scale, the I, IV, and V chord are minor. For practical purposes, the V chord is usually played as a dominant chord. This is here to help give us a stronger sense of resolution or pull to the I chord. The bIII and bVI chord are major. The ii chord is a minor 7b5 and the VII chord is a dominant. The number of notes in a chord don't affect its function in the harmonized scale. Any of these chords could be a triad, 7th, 9th, 11th or 13th chord. Triads are usually used in folk, funk, pop, and rock styles. 7th chords and 4 note chords are also used in rock music but more commonly used in jazz music

(NOTE: Please make note of the Bb in the key signature. That Bb is included in all of the B notes of the chords in the harmonized minor scale)

The Harmonized harmonic minor scale gives us some unusual chords. The Maj7#5 and the minor #7. The Maj7#5 is not used very often, but the Min #7 does come up from time to time. This scale produces two major chords (bIII and bVI), two minor chords (i and iv), one half-diminished (ii), one fully diminished (vii) and one dominant 7th (V)

(NOTE: For this harmonization, disregard the Bb in the key signature as there is no flat 7th in the harmonic minor scale, so all the chords are written out as is)

Tune in for part 3 where we will be going over both the melodic minor scale and the composite minor scale.

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