WEBVTT 00:00:02.179 --> 00:00:10.213 ... 00:00:10.213 --> 00:00:12.259 Hi, how are you doing? Justin here, filling in for the 00:00:12.259 --> 00:00:14.898 theory godfather today. 00:00:14.898 --> 00:00:18.045 and in this lesson I want to discuss 00:00:18.045 --> 00:00:19.817 minor scales. 00:00:19.817 --> 00:00:21.497 There's been a lot of confusion on the forums 00:00:21.497 --> 00:00:24.658 and I've seen lots of comments of different videos that I've done 00:00:24.658 --> 00:00:28.129 with people getting a bit confused about the different types of minor scale. 00:00:28.129 --> 00:00:32.578 The major scale is pretty obvious. There's the major scale and that's it. 00:00:32.578 --> 00:00:38.817 When we start talking about minor scales, we discover that there's the Natual minor scale, the Pure minor scale, the Aeolian mode... 00:00:38.817 --> 00:00:44.739 ...the Harmonic minor, Melodic minor, the Phrygian mode, the Dorian mode... 00:00:44.739 --> 00:00:50.418 So how come there's al these different minor scales? Where do they come from and when do you use them? 00:00:50.418 --> 00:00:53.365 That's what this video is about. 00:00:54.212 --> 00:00:59.712 I'm gonna tell you a little story and it's not really the truth, but I'm hoping that it will help you understand 00:00:59.712 --> 00:01:02.962 the makeup of these different minor scales and when you might use them. 00:01:02.962 --> 00:01:11.044 The first thing that you need to understand is the pure minor scale, which is the same as the natural minor scale and the Aeolian mode. 00:01:11.044 --> 00:01:16.376 This is the first minor scale that was used way back in ... time 00:01:16.376 --> 00:01:21.876 And it sounds like this. I'm gonna do one of these examples in the key of A. 00:01:21.876 --> 00:01:28.577 I'm gonna play an A minor chord and then I'm gonna play the A pure minor scale, which is the same as C major scale. 00:01:28.577 --> 00:01:33.338 It has the same notes as C major. So here's the chord... 00:01:35.293 --> 00:01:38.677 ...and here's the scale... 00:01:47.816 --> 00:01:53.897 That's the first type of minor scale that existed and that's the one that was used for a long time. 00:01:53.897 --> 00:01:59.784 Before we get on to the next stage, you need to understand another thing called a 'cadence', 00:01:59.784 --> 00:02:05.618 or more specifically a 'perfect cadence'. A perfect cadence is a V chord going to the I chord in any given key. 00:02:05.618 --> 00:02:12.953 In a major key, if we translate this back to A major, it would be the chord E7 going to A. 00:02:12.953 --> 00:02:17.435 In most classical music this was how a song finished, or a section finished. 00:02:17.435 --> 00:02:23.018 And you can hear when I play it in a sec. it really sounds like it's resolved, it finishes. 00:02:23.018 --> 00:02:29.017 So here we go, E7 to an A. 00:02:29.017 --> 00:02:32.183 You hear it all the time. 00:02:34.137 --> 00:02:40.703 Really common, it's this sound... 00:02:40.703 --> 00:02:43.035 You can hear it sound kind of final, finished. 00:02:43.035 --> 00:02:45.206 A perfect cadence. 00:02:45.206 --> 00:02:59.058 The reason that that works is, particularly this note G#, which is part of the E7 chord going... 00:02:59.058 --> 00:03:10.203 G# is called the leading note. And that's a really important part to understand. 00:03:10.203 --> 00:03:20.283 I already mentioned that the A minor scale has the same notes as the C major scale. 00:03:20.283 --> 00:03:35.702 If we look at the chords in the key of C, but we start on the chord A, we end up with this diatonic sequence, which would be A minor... 00:03:35.702 --> 00:03:47.369 B half-diminished... C ... D minor ... E minor (and this is important!), the fifth chord. 00:03:47.369 --> 00:03:53.703 F major... G major... and back to A minor. 00:03:53.703 --> 00:04:03.285 That's the diatonic sequence in A Pure minor. A natural minor, pure minor, aeolian mode, there all the same thing. 00:04:03.285 --> 00:04:08.204 They all have the same notes as the C major scale. They're called relative major and relative minor. 00:04:08.204 --> 00:04:15.611 The relative major of A minor is C major, and the relative minor of C major is A minor. 00:04:15.611 --> 00:04:25.424 You might want to check out the web site page for this. All of the stuff I'm talking about is typed up already, 00:04:25.424 --> 00:04:32.611 the page is called 'Demystify the minors', it would be a really good idea to take a look at that page. 00:04:32.611 --> 00:04:38.498 This video is embedded in that page on the website, so you can scroll down and see all the notes. 00:04:38.498 --> 00:04:43.279 You'll probably find that helpful to be able to see these things, the construction of each of these chords. 00:04:43.279 --> 00:04:50.217 The idea of this video is to give you the aural content, to make sure your ears understand what I'm talking about. 00:04:50.217 --> 00:04:53.443 So that's a cadence. 00:04:53.443 --> 00:05:01.222 The fifth chord in that diatonic sequence of A pure minor was E minor. 00:05:01.222 --> 00:05:12.696 If we go E minor to A minor, it doesn't really sound finished. It could keep going somewhere. 00:05:14.311 --> 00:05:18.197 It could go all sorts of different places, it doesn't have any sort of finality. 00:05:18.197 --> 00:05:27.859 What happened back in the day (it's not exactly true but bear with me), that Bach really wanted to get his perfect cadence. 00:05:27.859 --> 00:05:33.657 He wanted the sound of E7 going to A minor. 00:05:33.657 --> 00:05:35.136 So he could finish his song. 00:05:35.136 --> 00:05:46.444 What he decided to do, was to change the note G, which is the note that makes the E minor, and change it to a G sharp. 00:05:46.444 --> 00:05:51.299 Which meant that that chord, the fifth chord in the key of A minor, could be E7. 00:05:51.299 --> 00:05:55.945 So he could have the E7 going to A minor. 00:05:55.945 --> 00:06:06.339 That new scale is called the A Harmonic minor, because it gave him the harmony he required to make the music he wanted to play. 00:06:06.339 --> 00:06:13.194 This scale sounds like this. This is the A harmonic minor scale. Here's the chord... 00:06:13.194 --> 00:06:27.444 ...Here's the scale... 00:06:27.444 --> 00:06:33.527 All well and good! He's got his E7, he's changed the scale, and now he had the harmonies going that he wanted to use. 00:06:33.527 --> 00:06:37.611 Everything is happy. Almost...