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Why is a minor scale not tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone semitone like its relative major. For instance why isn't the minor of major C---CDEFGABC, played as g minor---gabcdef#g and not a minor?

A minor scale has a minor third (3 semi-tones) as its first interval of a third - in A minor the interval is A natural to C natural. So the sequence of semitones is tone-semitone-tone to start.

The relative minor of a major scale is the scale with the same number of sharps and flats as the major scale. C major has no sharps and flats, A minor has no sharps and flats.

The relative minor of a major scale always starts on the 6th pitch of the major scales.

Hope that helps.

Cathy

You mean you understood the question?
If you did, you're good. I tried and couldn't.

Words taken right out of my mouth.

I feel relieved.... I am obviously not the only one who didn't get it....

Gb Ab Bb C Db Eb F G, and minor eb f gb ab bb c d eb

Well I'm asking why is a minor based on key signature and the need for three kinds of minor scales rather than this tone semitone sequence.

It sounds to me like you created a random sequence of whole steps and half steps and asked: "Why aren't minor scales this way?". ????

Linda, I think it would be a better idea to listen to major and minor scales and work out how they are put together (in terms of tones and semitones aka whole and half-steps), rather than asking "why aren't minor scales like this, or this?"

Theory is just observation of what things are in music and what they do. It's kind of a non-question to ask why they aren't something else that they're not... if you follow ...

Maybe someone who knows music theory or sound physics can answer this question.

Well, when I read her post the first question was why the minor scale doesn't - have a major third as its first interval of a third. So I tried to address that first.

Then another part listed the G major scale and called it a minor scale. So I thought there was some confusion there and I tried to explain how relative minor scales were defined.

Then I got smart enough to read some of LindaR's old posts.

Perhaps she was just attempting to pull our collective legs and I was the only one who fell for it

Cathy

Yep, good try Cathy

What question exactly?

Nevermind, if anyone else has anything to add, fine.

The answer is here:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Minor+scale+theory

It might be useful to pick up a book on music theory. Knowledge of piano is really incomplete without a background in theory. Read a book on the subject and you'll have a lot of ah-ha moments, as so many things become clear to you.

Linda -- I and probably many other people here fit that bill, and we really can't tell where you're coming from.

Believe me, it's not that we don't know. It's that we can't tell what you're really asking.

OK. Here goes.

MAJOR: means the pattern tone-tone-semitone-tone-tone-tone-semitone

Any scale that uses that pattern is a major scale no matter which note it starts on, or what key signature might happen to be in the music at the point that the pattern occurs.

MINOR: is a loose term that really only has one constant - that the pattern begins with tone-semitone-tone-tone. The ending can be 'natural' (semitone-tone-tone), 'harmonic' (semitone-augmented 2nd-semitone), or 'melodic' (tone-tone-semitone). Sometimes we even refer to the Dorian mode as being 'minor' because it starts with that minor pattern tone-semitone-tone-tone, even though it then ends with tone-semitone-tone.

Does this address the fundamental issue in your question? Or is your question about something else? Now that you know how the naming of patterns works, can you think of a way to rephrase your question so that someone can actually address your concern?

the first question you want to ask is

"What is a major key and what is a minor key?"

There are 12 semitones, and a scale should have at least 2 notes in it, and anywhere from 2 to 12 notes (12 notes is the chromatic scale), and some scales are different on the way up from the way down. What I'm saying is there are a lot of possible scales.

there is the diatonic, chromatic, whole tone, pentatonic, diminished, phrygian dominant, arabic hungarian, the greek scales, mixolydian, lydian phyrgian, dorian hypolydian, hypophrygian, locrian, harmonic, etc., those are just named ones, there are a few thousand possible scales.

What makes it major? A major scale uses the major third interval and the minor scale uses the minor 3rd interval. That is the definition of major and minor.

It might seem strange, but no other notes matter for whether a scale is minor or major, not the 6ths the 7ths or 5ths, those will affect other tonal qualities, all that matters is that 3rd.

When are writing a piece of music, find some major key signature that lets the performer feel most comfortable in it. That's all there is to it. Because there are thousands of possible scales, we keep it simple and use the major diatonic keys for all our music, no matter what the real scale is. Makes it easier to learn how to play music. Usually a C minor piece is easiest to write in E flat, so that's what we usually write C minor in.

It's possible to write a piece in the "wrong" key signature. You could call it C minor (aka E flat) but the ear says the piece is in D minor. That's ok.

When you are writing don't worry too much about what key it really is in, just write what you feel, and let your ear always guide you.

Also sometimes it's ambiguous, you can't tell if a piece is minor or major because the composer never really makes clear where the root is, and without knowing which note is the root, you can't count up from it to figure out which is the 3rd. So you just write it in some key signature which makes the piece easy to play.

I don't think we need to work quite that hard without knowing exactly what the question is....

....but just for fun let me try with Linda's rephrased question......


It's not. It is what it is, and the key signature is part of a "language" that reflects what it is. In this respect it's no different than major, or anything else.


There's no "need" for 3 kinds of minor scales. There just ARE 3 different kinds of minor scales. They are different types of expression.

(Let's see if that helps......)