MUSIC 



4030 



MUSIC 



related minor the scale of A-minor. In the 

 same way, the scale from G has as its corre- 

 sponding minor the minor scale from E ; the 

 key of F has the key of D-minor, and so on. 

 It is necessary always to use the word minor, 

 for when the word key or scale is used without 

 modification it is the major which is meant. 



Things to Remember. Most important is the 

 fact stated above, that the minor scale begins 

 on the sixth tone of the major, or, in the syl- 

 lable-language, on la. It must be borne in 

 mind, however, that this related minor is in no 

 sense a part of the major scale, but is complete 

 in itself. 



Then there must not be confusion of the 

 numbers and the syllable tones. In the major 

 scale do is the first and la the sixth tone; in 

 the minor la is the first and do the third. The 

 keynote of a minor composition, therefore, is 

 never do, but la. 



The order of steps and half-steps is also dif- 

 ferent in the minor scale. It has been well 

 impressed upon us that in the major scale the 

 half-steps are between three and four and be- 

 tween seven and eight, but in the minor scale 

 there is no such uniformity, for there are three 

 different methods of writing minor scales. 



1. One form is the so-called natural scale, 

 whicb uses only the tones of the major scale, 

 introducing no extra sharps or flats. Such a 

 scale in the key of A-minor would be written 

 on the staff thus, 



-G-V 



and its letters and intervals would run as fol- 

 lows: 



ABCDEFGA 

 step half- step step half- step step 

 step step 



that is, the half-steps would occur between two 

 and three and between five and six. 



2. The second form is called the harmonic 

 minor. It introduces one sharp, not as a key 

 signature but as an accidental, thereby raising 

 the seventh tone a half-step. As in the natural 

 minor, the ascending and descending scales are 

 the same. The staff notation is as given here, 



ABCDEFSGA 



step half- step step half- one and half- 

 Mop >t< p one-half step 

 step 



This harmonic minor introduces a step-and-a- 

 half interval, which has not been met with in 

 any scale formerly studied. 



3. But the commonest form of the minor 

 scale is the melodic minor, and it is this which 

 is usually meant when the term minor is used. 

 In the ascending scale it has the sixth and 

 seventh tones raised a half-step by means of 

 sharps, but in the descending for the sixth tone, 

 and sometimes the seventh as well, is made 

 natural. The melodic minor scale from A thus 

 has its ascending and descending forms as fol- 

 lows : 



Exercise. Practice writing out the major 

 scales, each with its related minor, using the 

 melodic form. Do this in two ways, with the 

 letter names and with the staff, thus: 



F-Major and D-Minor 

 Major: F G AbB C D E F 

 Minor (ascending) : D E F G A *B 8C D 

 Minor (descending) : D$C^B A G F E D 



&& 



and the letter names and intervals are 



^y ^ f-}U~ ^ tj Q 



V o u 



It will be plain from the above example that 

 the use of a sharp is not the only way of show- 

 ing that a tone is to be raised a half-step. In 

 the key of F, for instance, B, the fourth tone, 

 is modified to B-flat. Now in the related minor 

 key of D, this B-flat becomes the sixth tone, 

 and must therefore be raised a half-step; and 

 this is accomplished, not by adding a sharp, but 

 by canceling the flat with a natural. 



In a singing exercise the simplest minor scale 

 to use is the so-called natural. Do not, how- 

 ever, confuse this with the natural key of C, 

 for the natural form of a minor scale may have 

 a number of sharps and flats. Remember that 

 the term natural in this connection merely 



