Miners

Actually this isn't about hard working and dirty miners, it's about minors, kids or those considered to be so by the law. I also want to know something about Minor Scales, or modes and how they work.

I figure that they are called minors because of some third interval or something I haven't yet stopped to figure out exactly why they are called that, but I'm gonna take a big chance and say it's intervals (isn't everything). So my question is more about which ones I should be using. For instance there are three (3 right?) Minor scales or modes within a major scale, I'm jst wondering which one ppl mean when they say Minor. At one point I was led to beleive that Phygarian is what you play if some says minor, then I found out that Dorian and Aeolian are also minor, and I think Aeolian is a pure minor, whatever that means. So I guess Im just wondering about the differences between the minor scales, which ones to use and when. Also whats the deal with the HArmonic minor scale, as far as I can tell its alot like phygarian just a note or two changed, which is a big deal, so were does that fit in because in my extremely limited knowledge I'd say its not a mode of a major scale.

Thanks for any help you can give me, I can't seem to find the answer anywhere, also forgive any glaring misconceptions or mispellings or misinformation I may have let fall upon this thread and set me straight, I'm thinking about taking a theory course at the Music college at University of Cincinnati (where I go to school) its a pretty good one, not that that really makes a difference for a 100 level theory course. This whole thing is very confusing to me and I think it might be benefical to have some knowledgable person to bounce questions off of for a few hours at a time. I think I could make a lot of progress doing that...

A minor chord is the same as a major, but with the third flattened (the third note you'd play in the scale taken down 1 fret). Scales are more complex though.

The Church Modes (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian & Locrian) are all scales built on each degree of a major scale. Play the intervals of a major scale, but start on each degreee of the scale in turn - thats how the scales are built. A Dorian and B Phrygian have the same notes, but sound different because of how the intervals are arranged. I'd say that sounds like too much to worry about right now. When people say to use 'the' minor scale, they mean natural minor which is aeolian, but one of the others might work as well / instead - you have to use your ears. Start with major and minor (Ionian & Aeolian) and build from there.

The Harmonic Minor is a natural minor (Aeolian) scale with a sharpened 7th. Harmonic Minor then has it's own modes, much like the church modes for major, but obviously it's all different scales.

Hope that helps - it's a big topic! :D

I understand the differences in intervals, well for the most part there's probably something I don't know but regardless. I'm assuming that I could find the modes of the Harmonic minor scale by just playing through starting on the second note, ect. Is there a Harmonic Major Scale then? and how many steps from the root of the minor scale is it, or visa versa, if it makes a difference.

Each new piece of information leads to ten more questions. But its fun to learn about at least.

Anybody got any good ideas for improving my ear. Its gotten a lot better but I've never really done any exercises. Does simply learning songs by ear help? probably, if anyone has a more effective method please enlighten me. Thanks for all our help zreynoldsp. And to everyone else, I've had a membership for a while and never planned on posting just looking at lessons and such but this has been a big help lately as I feel as though I've hit a wall. Thanks again.

The harmonic minor scale, as above, is the same as a natural minor scale, but with a sharp seventh. Beyond that, there is no relation - no intervalic path from natural minor as there is for the church modes. It is the first mode of a different family, and as you say, not a major scale mode.

Yes, you could figure out the other modes of the harmonic minor by following the same logic with intervals, or you could check out a site like this . There may be stuff in the GT lessons, but I've not seen it as yet.

On improving your ear - try working on recognising the intervals, so you can hear one note, and then another and be able to tell how far apart they are - gives you relative pitch so if you know what the first note is, you can figure out the rest.... very useful (to me anyway!). Start with major intervals, then minor before finally going chromatic...

Learning by ear - mimicking phrases and songs etc is also very useful, but the interval recognition will lead to this anyway. You should also be able to identify chord types by sound doing this sort of stuff..