How to Perform Minor Scales on a Clarinet

Minor scales are one type of musical scale that you can play. Minor scales are very different from major scales, which progress mostly by whole notes. To determine the notes of a minor scale, you will first need to know the notes of its complementary major scale. Here's how you can perform natural minor scales on the clarinet.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Clarinet
• Minor scales sheet music
• Fingering chart

Prepare

1. Figure out the progression of notes you should play. The easiest way to do this is to get a book or other sheet music that has the natural minor scales already printed out for you. If you do not have access to sheet music, you can figure out the notes yourself. Go to Section 2 to figure out how.
2. Practice your clarinet fingerings in the order on your sheet music. Play the notes on your clarinet starting with the lowest and moving on to the highest. When you reach the highest, practice going back down the scale.
3. Rehearse these fingerings over and over. Keep practicing your scale until you can perform without making any mistakes and without looking at the sheet music. Now you're ready to perform the scale for an audience.

Figure Out the Notes in Natural Harmonic Scales

4. Start by writing down any major scale you want to change into a minor scale. Make sure you write down each note in the scale.
5. Learn the general rule for natural harmonic scales. Natural harmonic scales start on the same note as their major scale. However, the notes progress differently. In natural harmonic scales, you move up by a whole step, then a half step, then two whole steps, then a half step and two whole steps.
6. Begin on the first note of your major scale, and figure out which note is one whole step away. If you're working on a c major scale, the d natural is one whole step away. Write down this note.
7. Find the note that is one half step away from the one you wrote down in Step 3. If you are on d natural, one half step away is E flat.
8. Determine the next note in your clarinet minor scale progression. If you are on E flat, as in Step 4, one whole step away is F natural. However, if you were on a flat, one whole step away would be B flat.
9. Convert all of the notes in your major scale into a natural minor scale. Then go back to Section 1, Step 2 to learn how to practice your new scales on your clarinet.