How to Construct Minor Scales

You can construct minor scales on a piano.

A minor scale is a series of musical notes that adhere to a specific pattern consisting of certain intervals or spaces between the notes. Minor scales can be used to create sad or spooky sounds, and they occur in many musical genres, including the blues, rock and country. If you are planning on providing some entertainment for a party that has a blues or scary theme, you might want to play music that contains minor scales.

Things You'll Need

• Musical instrument

Instructions

1. Play any musical note on an instrument. The notes in music are A, A#/Bb, B, C, C#/Db, D, D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G and G#/Ab.

2. Play a note that is two half-steps (or one whole step) higher. For instance, if you play a C as your first note, you would play a D next.

3. Play a note that is one half step higher than the last note. In this example, one half-step higher than D would be Eb.

4. Play a note that is one whole step higher than the previous note. In this example, you would play an F.

5. Play three consecutive notes, with each one being one whole step higher than the previous note. For this example, you would play a G followed by an A and a B.

6. Play a note that is one-half step higher than the last note to complete the scale. In this example, the note would be a C.

7. Apply this pattern (whole step, half-step, whole step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half-step) to create a minor scale beginning with any note.

References

• Gary Ewer's Easy Music Theory: Lesson 12- Minor Scales