Lesson-34 - Harmonic Minor - Some Minor Complications & Resolving !

Hi All,

Warning ! Take a deep breath (and time !) for this lengthy discussion…! This demands your absolute concentration !

To start with, let me repeat the pattern of Harmonic Minor once again :

( Whole + Semi + Whole ) + Whole + ( Semi + One & Half + Semi)

Using the above pattern, Can we get a Harmonic Minor scale with all Pure White Notes (as in the case of C-Major) ?

The answer is NO !

One case nearest to this level is the Harmonic Minor Scale starting with the note "A", which will be like this :

A – B – C – D – E – F – G# - A

Here also, it has one note as sharp.

Let us see one another case of case of D-Harmonic Minor,

Here it is getting complicated !

We are getting the one flat note as well as the sharp in the same scale, (based on the strict rule of selecting “One note only once” for the scale formation ) !

D – E – F – G – A - B(b) – C# -D

Which is peculiar, because so far, in case of Major scale, it is either sharp everywhere or flats everywhere. At no instance, we used both !
So what will happen ?

In case of Harmonic Minor, could we not get , (as we used to get in Major scale), any equivalent easy method to get step-by-step increase of either Sharps or Flats?

Also How to avoid the complicated flats and sharp combination of representation within the same scale?

Don’t get dis-heartened ! There is a way !

A slight compromise is required for the sake of simplicity !

Let us make some small adjustment of representation of note ! Then everything will fall in line automatically !............How ?

Let us get back to the A-Harmonic Scale which we just saw!

The actual notes of A-Harmonic minor to preserve the pattern of minor scale, are like this :

A – B – C – D – E – F – G# - A
So if we take A– Harmonic Minor and temporarily forget about the sharp of G, which is its leading note, and write this as follows:

A – B – C – D – E – F – G - A ( G is to be sharped later )

Now, we can say, this is like the pure white keys equivalent of C-Major…..?

Do you agree ?

So there lies the solution…!


Step-1 :
Represent the harmonic Minor scale omitting the sharp of Leading note (so that it can be equated mentally to particular Major scale in terms of number of sharps or flats )
Step-2 :
and then add back the sharp on the leading note separately, later.
You wont believe….! This also incidentally solves our problem of complex representation of using both sharp and flats in the same scale !

Otherwise please be assured that we are not changing the pattern of Harmonic Minor scale at all in the final outcome !

We exactly follow that pattern, but only representing in different way..!