6.4 · The Minor Scale
Three flavors of minor
The plain minor recipe is natural minor. But composers kept wanting a harder pull home, so they raise the 7th a semitone: harmonic minor. A third flavor, melodic minor, smooths the climb. All three below.
Natural vs. harmonic
Same ladder until the last rung. Then harmonic minor lifts G to G♯ and the top step leans hard into home. That exotic-sounding gap is its signature.
Why raise the 7th?
Climb to the 7th and stop. In natural minor the G sits a whole step from home: no urgency. Raise it to G♯ and it's a half step away, begging to resolve.
The third flavor: melodic minor
Harmonic minor's raised 7th leaves a three-semitone gap between ♭6 and 7. Melodic minor smooths it by raising the 6th too, on the way up, then walks back down as plain natural minor.
Quiz
1 / 3Harmonic minor raises which degree?