Music Theory Monday | 04: Natural Minor
Added 2020-04-07 00:38:12 +0000 UTCWhere to Start • Lesson Archive • Recommended Lesson Plan • Book a Private Lesson
This week we discuss the concept of relative minor and dig into why the dominant7 chord is so important in the major key and how the minor key essentially got jealous and wanted the dom7 V chord for itself.
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Comments
is there practice for this lesson?
Gregree
2025-08-11 16:15:26 +0000 UTCQuestion about the Dominant chord: Isn't the tritone of the C-maj scale F# ? (the seven of the dominant chord is supposed to be the tritone of the original maj-scale right?). Here the 7 of the G-chord is an F (Wich would be a P4 in the C-maj scale) Or am i just getting this wrong ?
Theo Dejaeger
2025-02-17 15:24:04 +0000 UTCI found out: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Guillaume de Machaut. I'll listen to this tonight.
Timm Delfs
2022-07-17 11:10:47 +0000 UTCOh blimey, I thought I‘d save myself the hassle of searching for it in the vid. Never mind, I‘ll search and keep pen and paper (or whatever) near. Thanks!
Timm Delfs
2022-07-16 22:20:48 +0000 UTCShoot - I posted this a few years ago. Can you let me know what time in the video I mentioned these composers?
Scott Paul Johnson
2022-07-16 22:17:42 +0000 UTCScott, could you please spell out the two composers you mention in the video?
Timm Delfs
2022-07-16 21:52:38 +0000 UTCAround 35:30, I think Stray Cat Strut by the Stray Cats might have that chord progression? Not positive, but that song immediately came to mind.
Nathan
2021-11-09 17:28:15 +0000 UTCHaha---right around 21:30---love this guy!
Nathan
2021-11-09 17:13:08 +0000 UTCOoooo, excellent question. If you're watching these in order, that will make more sense in the next MTM lesson and a LOT more sense in MTM | 10: Dominant Chords (So Important!) Essentially though, it means that historically, when people heard the V chord, the most satisfying chord to hear next was the I chord.
Scott Paul Johnson
2021-08-13 04:58:20 +0000 UTCHey when you say the harmonic five resolves the minor one, what are you talking about? Specifically what does it mean for a chord to resolve another chord?
Brian
2021-08-13 01:20:20 +0000 UTCSo many cool head exploding moments in this one! Great great stuff as usual :D
Emily Raw
2021-06-23 10:29:55 +0000 UTCThis was an awesome lesson - thanks, Scott. I’ve been really enjoying all of them, but I really appreciated your explanation of the relationship between natural and harmonic, and that *tension* between chords. Really cleared up some half-understood things for me!
Andrew Klein
2021-03-02 17:04:04 +0000 UTCHaha. Thats good! Dominant Chords do sound weird sometimes
Scott Paul Johnson
2021-02-04 22:18:10 +0000 UTCStill not liking dominant chords. They just now screw up the natural minor scales. Bastards! 🤬
DeDé
2021-02-04 22:11:30 +0000 UTCGot it. Like an E# avoids duplicating an F. Thanks.
Tim Rowley
2020-12-03 06:55:00 +0000 UTCoddly enough, double sharps are written with a lowercase "x" where you would normally write a sharp, and a double flat is two flat symbols in a row "bb"
Scott Paul Johnson
2020-12-03 06:19:44 +0000 UTCTim! This will come up a little more in some future lessons, but this is where you run into double sharps. It's so important to NOT have duplicate notes in a scale that composers a long time ago realized that double sharps should be a thing.
Scott Paul Johnson
2020-12-03 06:17:54 +0000 UTCWorking with a BMaj scale, the relative minor scale is G#, with the 7th note being an F#. If I'm sharping the 7th note to make it harmonic, then I can't avoid having two G's in the scale - a G and G# at positions VII and i respectively. So harmonic minor scales can't conform to having one of every 'alphabet' note in them always, right?
Tim Rowley
2020-12-02 22:52:53 +0000 UTCThank you for these lessons. This is making a lot of sense to me. Keep up the awesome work.
Daniel Ankrom
2020-11-25 00:15:18 +0000 UTCYou made the scales seems to be very easy and reasonable. Great job!
Raphael Barcelos
2020-09-13 20:58:17 +0000 UTCLoved this lesson. So much to take in but it now explains what the harmonic minor scale is. I had to learn it for a grading but had no clear understanding of what it was for. Thanks.
Riccardo Emanuele
2020-08-27 09:10:32 +0000 UTCThanks! Will do ;)
Leslie
2020-08-11 01:51:52 +0000 UTCLeslie! Check out the next MTM lesson
Scott Paul Johnson
2020-08-10 22:33:49 +0000 UTCHey Scott, appreciating the work youre doing! I am a bit confused about one thing that came up in this episode; specifically re: the difference between the natural and harmonic minor, and namely the chord Em7 in the key of A minor (harmonic). Isn't this also an E (major) Dom 7 in the key of A major? As far as I can see, they both have the same notes: E, G#, B and D, though maybe i'm making a mistake somewhere? If I am right, what could this mean? whyyyy? Like, why call it an Em7 at all? Feel like I must be missing something here, but I perked up when you covered this chord in particular cause its one i noticed in a song lately and was messing around with, but experiencing some confusion about it and not knowing if it was a minor or major chord... im wondering if my confusion is part of some mystical theory I dont know about...
Leslie
2020-08-10 21:08:31 +0000 UTCThat Harmonic minor progression you played sounded like the song "Stray Cat Strut." (Am, G, F, E)
Jeanna
2020-06-30 21:45:30 +0000 UTCHi everyone - I forgot to link the PDF I was using - it should be available now. Thanks for being here!
Scott Paul Johnson
2020-04-15 20:09:24 +0000 UTCYo! I just filmed that video. It’ll be out next Monday.
Scott Paul Johnson
2020-04-08 21:29:58 +0000 UTCHey Scott, thanks for all the great content and explanation! Putting some context around the purpose of the Harmonic Minor and the sharp 7 was super helpful and it makes a lot more sense now. I like the idea of covering the Melodic Minor scale in a future video and maybe understand why it's different on the way down....so weird.
Davin
2020-04-08 20:55:54 +0000 UTCGreat! Thanks!
Tasha McManus
2020-04-08 19:32:17 +0000 UTCYou are not blind! I forgot to link it. https://www.patreon.com/posts/35412003
Scott Paul Johnson
2020-04-08 19:05:49 +0000 UTCHi. I am not seeing the lesson on 7 chords. Maybe I’m just blind?
Tasha McManus
2020-04-08 19:03:45 +0000 UTC
