Talk:Minor scale: Difference between revisions

The major scale is defined in terms of the spacing of its notes

tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone

This has not yet been done for minor scale. It only says that some notes have been augmented (raised in pitch).

I may be able to work out the spacing of the notes by the sharps and flats used. -- User:Karl Palmen

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For the Harmonic Scale it is tone, semitone, tone, tone, semitone, tonesemitone, semitone Rjstott (before adding to minor scale someone else should confirm!)

On the Melodic ascending part it is tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, tone, semitone though I've never understood the relevance of why it is different on the way down as scales aren't a general feature of most music!

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Thanks for the information and again, I can't understand why it's different on the way down, because I see a scale as a set of notes used for a piece of music.

The harmonic tone, semitone, tone, tone, semitone, tone, semitone, semitone doesn't add up. An octave needs 5 tones and 2 semitones.

The melodic tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, tone, semitone does add up. It has a run of 4 tones and a run of 1 tone and so is not a cyclic shift of major and so I'd expect it to sound different.

A look at Musical mode says this is not true and that minor is

tone, semitone, tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone

This is a cycle shift of major. It is identical to major except it starts a tone and a semitone lower. Now I ask Why do Major and Minor Scales sound different?

--User:Karl Palmen

Considering just the natural minor for the moment (which has the same notes as the relative major, just permuted) -- it all depends on where your home note (or tonic) is. The pattern of T/S from A upwards to A' in natural A minor is different from the pattern from C upwards to C' in C major. So a melody that treats the respective tonics as the 'home' note will sound different, because of the different pattern of tone gaps. Same notes, different pattern.

If you didn't think of the 'wheel' of notes as having a home, and you could choose C or A as starting point at will, or had no idea of "starting point" at all, then there's no difference. Consider playing random notes from the whole piano keyboard from either set - it will sound the same, because they use the same set of notes. It's only human pattern-making that makes the musical structure that makes the difference. --- The Anome

I now ask about this pattern making. The answer could go in the tonic page. --- User:Karl Palmen

The dark sound of minor keys

In line with User:Karl Palmen's comment, I have a question about this excerpt from the article.

Minor scales are sometimes said to have a more interesting, possibly sadder sound than plain major scales.

I, too, noticed this years ago. To date I have not heard a satisfactory answer as to why this is so. Why is it that transposing a piece to a minor key suddenly makes it sound so gloomy and sullen? Whatever answer we come up with, it'll be an important addition to the article. Surely someone must know? --Ardonik 09:43, Aug 8, 2004 (UTC)

The minor mode may be considered "more interesting" only because it consists of three scales, natural, melodic, and harmonic, which, treated freely together, provides nine pitches (in C:C,D,Eb,F,G,Ab,A,Bb,B), rather than the seven of the major mode (C,D,E,F,G,A,B).

Any mention of the minor made as "happier" or "brighter" than the major, as fact, is not neutral. It does deserve a neutralized mention. Pieces in the minor mode are more than capable of being brighter or happier than a piece in major, and vice versus. Specifically, pieces written in major use effects which depend upon the features of the major scale. The leading-tone is one of these features and is used to create a feeling of drive towards the tonic, depriving a piece in major of the leading-tone, absent in the natural minor scale, takes away a great deal of the pieces energy, without replacing it.

More generally the interval strength (lowest possible location in the harmonic series) of minor triads is less than that of major, which interprets major as more "stable" (a major triad is found in the 4th, 5th, and 6th harmonics of a pitch, while the minor is the 5th, 6th, and 7th).

Hyacinth 22:20, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)