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Is this a harmonic Ab minor scale?
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| Beatflux |
| Ab,Bb,Cb,Db,Eb,Fb,G,Ab |
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| Mad for Brad |
something to help you remember when it is harmonic and why it is called harmonic has to do with the name. A minor key is defined by the harmonic V going to i. With the natural scale, V in c minor would be a minor chord so what composers did was raise the 7th scale degree Bb to Bnatural to get a more salient V I resolution. The minor second interval from Bnatural to C creates more tension thus sounds more resolved once you hit the c minor tonic chord.
The melodic minor is in context a harmonic minor scale as the V chord is being outlined but the 6th degree is also raised as it is part of a melody line that ascends and it was considered bad form in the classical period to have augmented second intervals. So the raising of the 6th fixed that.
The natural minor is the easy one as it is just an aeolian scale. All the white keys starting from A. |
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| Beatflux |
| quote: | Originally posted by Mad for Brad
something to help you remember when it is harmonic and why it is called harmonic has to do with the name. A minor key is defined by the harmonic V going to i. With the natural scale, V in c minor would be a minor chord so what composers did was raise the 7th scale degree Bb to Bnatural to get a more salient V I resolution. The minor second interval from Bnatural to C creates more tension thus sounds more resolved once you hit the c minor tonic chord.
The melodic minor is in context a harmonic minor scale as the V chord is being outlined but the 6th degree is also raised as it is part of a melody line that ascends and it was considered bad form in the classical period to have augmented second intervals. So the raising of the 6th fixed that.
The natural minor is the easy one as it is just an aeolian scale. All the white keys starting from A. |
Good to know. I wondered why some pop songs used that harmonic minor because when I first heard it, it sounded "egyptian."
Thx 2 both of you. |
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| Mad for Brad |
| it is the type of scale you would play over a dominant V in a minor key. It works with other chords like iv where the raised 7th acts as a leading tone to the 5th of the chord but it wouldn't work for bVII ie Bb D F . Basically , it will work with i, ii7 , iv V VI but in each case other than V, it acts as a leading tone to some more stable tone which is part of the actual chord. |
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| LoWahn |
Damn some theory bombs going off in this thread.
Thanks for taking the time to write out those explanations ^^ |
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| cryophonik |
| quote: | Originally posted by Mad for Brad
The minor second interval from Bnatural to C creates more tension thus sounds more resolved once you hit the c minor tonic chord.
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And, just to add to that, the resolution is made even stronger when the chord succession is V7 > i. Raising the Bb to Bnatural AND adding the F to the dominant chord creates a tritone (i.e., diminished fifth or augmented fourth interval) between the Bnat and F, which is very tense and has a strong tendency to resolve back to the root and third (i.e., C and Eb) of the tonic chord. In contrast, adding a seventh to a minor v chord creates a stable perfect fifth interval between the third and seventh notes (Bb and F), which does NOT have that strong tendency to resolve back to the root chord. |
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| Beatflux |
| quote: | Originally posted by cryophonik
And, just to add to that, the resolution is made even stronger when the chord succession is V7 > i. Raising the Bb to Bnatural AND adding the F to the dominant chord creates a tritone (i.e., diminished fifth or augmented fourth interval) between the Bnat and F, which is very tense and has a strong tendency to resolve back to the root and third (i.e., C and Eb) of the tonic chord. In contrast, adding a seventh to a minor v chord creates a stable perfect fifth interval between the third and seventh notes (Bb and F), which does NOT have that strong tendency to resolve back to the root chord. |
neato |
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