While major scales have their place in the joyful, the bright,

and the hopeful, minor keys are the mastermind behind the
music that tears at your heartstrings.

Best of all, minor keys do not limit you to songs that are exclusively
sad and wistful; you can just as easily evoke feelings of mystery,
dread, tension, and even hope and optimism. Believe it or not,
countless pop songs are written in minor keys!

For example, Santana’s “Oye Como Va” is written in A minor, but

many wouldn’t ever guess that from its jubilant groove:

Oye Como Va - Santana1

Several questions arise: why do minor keys usually sound sad? What
is the difference between major vs. minor keys? How do you play in a
selected minor key?

In this comprehensive guide to minor keys, we’ll cover all of this and
more. Read on to learn the theory behind minor keys, how to build
minor scales, chords, and intervals, and how to listen for them in the
songs you know and love.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
What is a Minor Key? 3
Tones and Semitones 4
From One Scale to Three: 5
Finding Minor from Major 5
Minor Keys and the Circle of Fifths 6
Finding the Notes Using the Circle 7
Minor Key Signatures 8
Minor Scales 9
The Natural Minor Scale 9
The Harmonic Minor Scale 10
The Melodic Minor Scale 11
Building Chords in Minor Keys 13
Listening for Minor Keys 15
The Importance of the Minor Third 15
Major vs. Minor Chords 16
Listening for the Tonic 18
Listening for Minor Chord Progressions 19
The World of Minor 21

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What is a Minor Key?
First off, let's understand minor keys by applying some basic music
theory.

A musical key is, by definition, a certain collection of notes that a piece

of music is composed in. There are a total of 12 minor keys, and each
minor key contains seven notes that can be used to write music in that
key.

So, what makes a minor key a minor key? It’s the pitch difference
between the notes in the key. If arranged in ascending order, the
seven notes within a key form a ​scale​, which when played, makes that
unmistakable wistful and sad sound.

Listen to the C major and C minor natural scales, and you can
immediately recognize the upbeat, bright character of the major scale,
and the melancholy mood of the minor scale:

C Major Scale - Listen Online2

C Natural Minor Scale - Listen Online3

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Tones and Semitones

Looking at the scores, it is evident that the two scales use different
notes. Looking closer still, you can see that the ​spaces between the
notes​ differ also.

The semitone is the smallest interval in Western music, and is the

interval between two adjacent notes (for example, C and C​♯)​ . A whole
tone, or simply a ​tone​, is comprised of two semitones, with an
example being C and D. Semitones and tones are also known as half
steps and whole steps, respectively. For the purposes of this article,
we will be using the semitone (ST) and tone (T) terminology. Modern
Songstress has a more​ ​in-depth description of whole tones and
semitones4, for those interested.

Let’s look at how semitones and tones are used to build up the major
and minor scale:

Comparing the patterns:

● T-T-ST-T-T-T-ST (major)
● T-ST-T-T-ST-T-T (minor)

This difference in the sequence of steps results in each scale having a

completely different sound.

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As we will look at later, the most important difference between major
and minor is the ​third note in the scale.

From One Scale to Three:

As we will see, there are not one, but three 7-note minor
scales, each with their own rich, distinctive sound. However,
one thing they share in common is the same tone-semitone
pattern between the first five notes: T-ST-T-T.

In fact, all natural minor scales share this tone-semitone

pattern.​ That’s right: whether the minor key is the accidental-free A
minor or the A​♯​ minor scale that features ​seven sharps​, the
tone-semitone pattern never deviates in the natural minor scale.

With this knowledge, we can build a natural minor scale starting on

any note. However, if you already know your major scales, there’s an
easy way to figure out minor scales without counting tones and
semitones.

Finding Minor from Major

Though they may sound worlds apart, major and minor keys are in
fact closely related. You can easily convert major keys to minor keys
simply by understanding the concept of ​relative keys.

Each major key has a ​relative minor​, with which it shares a key
signature.

The relative minor is found on the sixth scale degree of a major key,
or three semitones down from its corresponding major key. For
example, the relative minor of C major is A minor.

Try it out: what is the relative minor of F​♯​ major?

Answer is on the next page.

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The relative minor of F​♯​ major is D​♯​ minor.

For a bit more on this, head over to Essential Music Theory for another
useful explanation of relative minors, including a great keyboard
visualization of the concept5.

Relative keys have a special relationship: ​not only do they share a

key signature, but they contain all the same notes.​ Therefore, if
you can name the notes of a major scale, you already know the
pitches of its relative minor.

There exists another kind of relationship between major and minor

keys: the ​parallel minor​ of a major key starts on the same note, but
contains different notes. No Treble helpfully​ ​compares and contrasts
the two concepts of relative minor and parallel minor6.

Minor Keys and the Circle of Fifths

There’s an even easier way of understanding major-minor
relationships, the notes contained within keys, and key signatures.

If you need to find all the notes within a certain minor key, you don’t
need to count semitones and tones to find the notes or the relative
minor - you can instead look directly to the Circle of Fifths to find
which notes will be flatted or sharped:

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Finding the Notes Using the Circle

To understand minor key signatures and how they can help us find the
notes contained in a minor key, remember: ​a relative minor is
found three semitones down from its corresponding major key,
with which it shares a key signature.​ On our handy circle of fifths,
the outer circle contains the major keys, the inner circle shows their
relative minors, and the key signatures of each are major-minor
pairing are shown adjacent. If you ​really ​want to dig into the
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 ​ xcellent explanation of the
mechanics of the circle, Pianote gives an​ e
construction and works of the circle .
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Let’s say you need to figure out the pitches found in C​♯​ minor.
Looking at the circle, C​♯​ minor has four accidentals: ​F​♯​, C​♯​, G​♯​,
and D​♯​.​ This means that starting with the tonic, your pitches for this
key will be ​C​♯​, D​♯​, E, F​♯​, G​♯​, A, and B.

Try it yourself: what would the notes of the key of F minor be?

The notes would be F, G, A♭, B♭, C, D♭, and E♭.

Minor Key Signatures

To get used to finding key signatures on the Circle, try the exercise
below. You'll be given a specific key signature - look to the circle to
find the minor key it belongs to.

Answers are on the next page.

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 1. F minor
2. D minor
3. B minor

It's worth noting that you may not have the circle handy at all times.
In these cases, there is a​ ​simple trick you can use to quickly determine
the key signature from the key and vice versa8, as detailed by A
Higher Note.

Minor Scales
Minor scales offer rich harmonic and melodic variety that’s not found in
major. In fact, there are a variety of minor scales available for your
musical expression. Here, we'll look at the three most ubiquitous and
useful minor scales.

Bear in mind that there is actually another world of minor scales

outside these three - the minor pentatonic is another useful scale,
especially for soloing9, as explained by Guitar Habits.

The Natural Minor Scale

Look closely at the pitches you derived from the circle of fifths - when
placed in ascending order, they form a scale. The ​natural minor scale​,
to be exact. To verify this, you can count the whole tones and half
tones and check if they fit the signature T-ST-T-T-ST-T-T pattern.

A Natural Minor - Listen Online10

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How To Sing Smarter has created a great​ ​vocal exercise to get you
singing in A natural minor11. This will help you recognize the distinctive
feel of the natural minor scale, as well as developing your sight-singing
skills.

Moving beyond the natural minor, something interesting starts to

happen when we add accidentals...

The Harmonic Minor Scale

If you make a little tweak to the natural minor by raising the seventh
degree of the scale, you obtain the harmonic minor scale:

A Harmonic Minor - Listen Online12

This raised seventh degree makes quite a difference in sound. It adds

a hint of tension to the scale, which then resolves once the tonic is
reached. The harmonic minor scale is a useful tool for jazz guitarists,
and as Jazz Guitar Online explains,​ ​it can be used to solo over chord
progressions in a fascinating way13.

Once you get comfortable with the notes of harmonic minor scales, a
world of improvisation opens up to you. Kent Hewitt shows how you
can begin improvising in the fifth mode of a harmonic scale, which
simply means using the fifth note of the harmonic scale as your tonic:

Improvisation Tutorial on Harmonic Minor Scale14

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The Melodic Minor Scale

If you raise both the sixth and the seventh degrees of the natural
minor scale, you’re left with the melodic minor scale:

A Melodic Minor - Ascending - Listen Online15

The notes in the A melodic minor scale are ​A, B, C, D, E, F​♯​, and
G​♯​.

But wait! The melodic minor has more tricks up its sleeve. On the way
down, the sixth and seventh degrees are lowered back down to their
natural minor places:

A Melodic Minor - Descending - Listen Online16

What?! ​ A scale that goes up one way and down the other? How could
that be?

The melodic minor actually came about by reflecting how Baroque

composers of the 1600s and 1700s solved the problems of minor
harmonies (more on that later). The best part is that minor melodies
in this scale offer two extra note choices than the standard seven-note
scales.

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The principle seems strange, but when you hear it all together, the
melodic minor sounds quite musical:

A Melodic Minor - the whole scale - Listen Online17

The melodic minor is an interesting scale sonically. In the first half of

the ascending scale, ​A-B-C-D-E​ follows the pattern of
tone-semitone-tone-tone, the same as the natural minor. Meanwhile,
the second half, ​E-F​♯​-G​♯​-A​, is a tone-tone-semitone pattern, which
is the beginning of a major scale pattern. ​Therefore, the scale
starts off sounding minor, and then switches to sounding
major.​ This lends an interesting, conflicting quality to the scale and
places it somewhere between major and minor. It also gives it internal
dissonance in the form of ​tritones​, which is the name for an interval
formed by three whole tones:

The tension and musical interest that the tritones and major/minor
ambiguity add to the melodic minor scale make it perfect for jazz and
experimental music, though it is found in classical and popular music
as well. An example is the famous “Carol of the Bells”:

Carol of the Bells - The Piano Guys18

If you're a little unclear on how each of these minor scales is formed,

check out [Link]'s​ s ​ tep-by-step construction of the natural,
harmonic, and melodic scales19! Then, try forming each type of minor
scale in different keys to cement your understanding. EarMaster

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provides an excellent​ exercise for building these scales in various keys
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Building Chords in Minor Keys

Because there is not one, but ​three​ different types of minor scales at
your disposal, the opportunities for chord-building are bigger than with
the major scale.

To build a chord on any note in a specific minor key, simply add a third
and a fifth above the note, applying the key’s accidentals where
appropriate.

Let’s take a look at the chords available to you from the natural,
harmonic, and melodic minors. ​We will use Roman numeral
notation to represent the chords built on each minor key scale
degree​ - however, the Nashville number system, which uses regular
numerals to denote scale degrees, may also be used.

Here are the chords built on the A natural minor scale. You’ll notice no
accidentals, and that the resultant chords take on different ​qualities
based on the distances between the notes:

Chords of the A natural minor scale - Listen Online21

Here are the chords built on the A harmonic minor scale. G​♯​ is
present instead of G, because of the raised seventh degree in
harmonic scales:

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Chords of the A harmonic minor scale - Listen Online22

Lastly, here are the chords built on the A melodic minor scale. The
sixth and seventh degrees are raised in the ascending scale, but not in
the descending scale:

Chords of the A melodic minor scale - Listen Online23

When we write chord progressions in minor keys, we can use the

chords directly from these scales. Depending on which minor scale we
use, we can get different progressions:

● If we use the natural minor scale, we will obtain a progression of

i-iv-v (all minor chords)
● With the harmonic minor, the progression is i-iv-V
● With the melodic minor, the progression is i-IV-V

This is a big part of what makes minor keys so rich and nuanced.

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Listening for Minor Keys
As you can see, the accidentals of minor keys will lead to the
formation of chords that are either major, minor, augmented, or
diminished. Let’s focus on those first two.

The Importance of the Minor Third

What separates a major chord from a minor chord is the middle note -
that is, the ​third​. A major third will have a bright sound:

Major third - Listen Online24

While a minor third will sound far more serious:

Minor third - Listen Online25

The minor third is incredibly important in Western music. Not only

does it help form the backbone of minor chords, but it sounds great as

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a standalone interval. In fact, it's​ t​ he darling of the jazz improvisation
world26, as detailed by Altobone.

There is a myriad of ways you can train your ear to distinguish major
from minor, and even different types of minor scales and chords from
one another. It is likely that your ear can already pick out minor key
melodies from their wistful sound.

Major vs. Minor Chords

Let’s start with a straightforward comparison:

Major Chord - Listen Online27

Minor Chord - Listen Online28

Listen to each - the difference should jump out at you. The major
chord sounds bright and happy, while the minor chord sounds dark,
gloomy and sad. Chances are, your ear is quite good at telling apart
major and minor. See if you can determine the tonality of the following
chords! Answers are below.

Example 1 - Listen Online29

Example 2 - Listen Online30

Example 3 - Listen Online31

Example 4 - Listen Online32

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Example 5 - Listen Online33

Example 6 - Listen Online34

Answers are on next page.

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Answer key:

● Example 1: C Major
● Example 2: F Major
● Example 3: G Minor
● Example 4: E Minor
● Example 5: B Minor
● Example 6: E Major

You can extend this major-vs-minor logic to a full song. If the tune
sounds bright or happy, uses mostly major chords and generally
comes to rest on a major chord, it’s probably a major key. If the song
sounds dark and gloomy, uses mostly minor chords and generally
comes to rest on a minor chord, it’s probably a minor key.

Predictably, transforming a major key song into a minor key song will
result in a dramatic shift in the song's mood. For example, listen to
what happens to the Village People’s “YMCA” when it is transposed into
a minor key:

YMCA - The Village People (reworked to a minor key)35

The mood shifts considerably! Minor key versions of major songs

sound darker, more tense, and more ​epic.

Listening for the Tonic

The tonic is truly the anchoring point of a song. As such, songs often
tend to begin and/or end on the tonic or on the chord built on the
tonic.

In a song written in a minor key, the melody or chord

progression will often conclude on the minor chord built on the
tonic of that minor key.

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For example, if we have a i-iv-v-i chord progression, it naturally
resolves back to the tonic i chord:

i-iv-v-i Progression in A minor - Listen Online36

Listening for Minor Chord Progressions

Minor key chord progressions exist in many flavours, thanks to the

presence of the natural, harmonic, and melodic minor scales. With
some practice, you can train your ear to determine which scale the
chord progression you’re hearing is based on.

Let’s have another look at the above progression:

i-iv-v-i Progression in A minor - Listen Online37

This i-iv-v-i progression is based on the ​natural minor scale,​ as

evidenced by the lack of raised sixth and seventh degrees.

Let’s tweak this sequence slightly to form a progression based on the

harmonic minor scale​, by replacing the minor v chord with a major V
chord. This is achieved by raising the seventh degree of the scale,
which corresponds to the middle note in the chord built on the fifth
degree of the scale. In A minor, this raises the G to a G​♯​:

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i-iv-V-i Progression in A minor - Listen Online38

Listen for the difference between the i-iv-v-i and the i-iv-V-i
progressions. What quality does that raised seventh lend to the latter
progression?

This type of chord progression is where the harmonic minor scale

becomes a handy soloing tool.​ A​ s explained by Zombie Guitar39, the A
natural minor scale will sound great when soloing over those Am and
Dm chords, but will not work with the E major (V) chord. However, the
A ​harmonic​ minor will work beautifully over that major V chord.

As for the ​melodic minor scale,​ it is less commonly used as a basis for
chord progressions. Composers tend to instead use it for melodies, as
its name implies.

If we were to tweak our original i-iv-v-i progression to fit the notes of

the A melodic minor scale, the resultant progression is i-IV-V-i:

i-IV-V-i Progression in A minor - Listen Online40

The raised sixth degree results in a major chord built on the fourth
degree of the scale, with the notes D, F​♯​, and A. As before, the raised
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seventh degree results in a major chord on the fifth degree of the
scale, with the notes E, G​♯​, and B.

The World of Minor

As you delve deeper into the rich world of minor keys, melodies, and
chord progressions, you’ll realize how much musical interest and depth
they can add. The worlds of major and minor are certainly not
separate - they often coexist beautifully, with a song containing both
major and minor chords (and chord progressions!) that complement
one another.

Equipped with everything you've learned in this Ultimate Guide

to Minor Keys, listen and deepen your enjoyment of your
favourite minor key songs, as you pick out the tonic minor
chord, the scales that the riffs, licks, and solos are built on, and
(after enough practice) the minor chord progressions you’re
hearing.

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