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5.3.8 The Minor Scales Formula: Minor Scale Degrees, Especially the Minor Third
When you’re writing a song or composing a piece of music in a minor key, it doesn’t much matter which version of the three minor scales you use—natural minor, melodic minor, or harmonic minor. All of these minor scales differ only in the upper half of the scale. The lower half is identical in all of them.
Your brain hears the critical difference between the sound of the major mode and the sound of the minor mode, not in the upper half of the scale, but in the lower half.
Only one note makes all the difference, and that note is scale degree 3.
- In the major mode, the interval from the tonic note to scale degree 3 is a major third—a pitch span of four semitones.
- In the minor mode, whether ascending or descending, the interval is always a minor third—a pitch span of three semitones.