Natural ("Pure") Minor Scales

Minor Scales

The first thing you should realize is that there are 3 types of minor scales:

1) Natural, or Pure, Minor

2) Harmonic Minor

3) Melodic Minor

This page will introduce the first type, Natural Minor. Just like major scales, natural minor scales are made up of whole steps except for in 2 places. This time, though, the half-steps come in different places than in Major scales:

In minor scales, the half-steps come between the 2-3 notes and the 5-6 notes.

Otherwise, they're very similar to major scales. In fact, every Major Scale

has a RELATED ("relative") Minor Scale.

How does this work? Well...if I play a C Major scale but start on A instead of C, I will hear a Minor Scale:

An A-minor scale.

I've simply altered the placement of the half-steps. This is an important concept and it can help you learn your Minor Scales very quickly.

As you can surmise, if you've learned all your Major Scales, you know all your Minors by default!

You just have to know which note to start on.......

We've already seen that A-minor is RELATED to C major. And A is the 6th scale degree of a C Major scale, right?

By that I mean: "A" is the 6th note on your way up a C Major scale. So.........

**What is the 6th degree of a Bb Major scale?

Bb-C-D-Eb-F-G-A-Bb

Guess what? G Minor is RELATED to Bb Major. "G is Bb's RELATIVE minor".

That means that if you start on G and play the notes of a Bb major scale, you will have played a

G Minor scale.

*So what's the key signature for G Minor look like?

As with your Major Scales, you should practice the following scales with a METRONOME

Strive for beautiful intonation and memorize these as soon as possible.

(Not a problem if you know your Majors!)

Start slowly, learn them CORRECTLY. Then work for speed.

Don't be afraid to write positions over any notes that give you trouble. ALTERNATE positions should be marked for sure!

If some of these are out of your range, don't fret. Just start them in the octave you can manage and work your way up. Challenge yourself, though, and TRY them in the extremes of your range.

*TIP: once you've got a handle on all these scales, print this page. Then, cut the scales into little strips. Fold them and put them in your trombone case. Every day, as part of your Daily Routine, pick 4 at random and do the Warm-up with them.

Or, refer only to the key signatures by printing out this handy guide: