A music book I have uses relative minor scales. What is difference between natural and relative and which do I use?
following from my notes.
Relative Minor Scale = W,H,W,W,H,1½,H (Starts on the 6th tone of the Relative Major scale and has the same signature.)
Natural Minor Scale = W,H,W,W,H,W,W. (Starts on 1st tone of the first tone of the major scale)
Something isn’t quite right there with your step pattern. They should both be the same because they are the same thing. The relative pattern you suggest, W,H,W,W,H,W(h),H is actually the harmonic minor.
Relative minor is relative to the major scale (starting on the 6th), it shares the same notes.
C major: C D E F G A B (1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
A Natural Minor: A B C D E F G (1,2,b3,4,5,b6,b7)
Different starting note but share the same notes, therefore they are relative. Natural minor is also the same as the Aeolian mode.
If you are playing over a chord progression in C major, you could use either scale because they are the same. The only difference is how you use it, if you are “thinking” A minor then you might be likely to put more emphasis on the A tone instead of the C. If you are fiddling around with either scale but letting your ear guide you then it doesn’t really make any difference.
The harmonic minor is slightly different, it raises the 7th of the natural minor, which is normally flat. The main reason for this scale is because in minor keys it’s common to change the V chord from minor to dominant 7th. For example, i-iv-v in the key of A minor would give us the chords:
Am – Dm – Em
If we change the Em to E7 we get a stronger tension which resolves better to the tonic.
The notes in E minor are E, G, B.
The notes in E7 are E, G#, B, D.
G# doesn’t belong to the key of A minor, it should be G natural, which happens to be the b7. If we raise the b7 (in A minor) to make it natural then it becomes G#.
What we end up with is Am and Dm which we can use the natural minor scale over. When it comes to the E7 we can switch to A harmonic minor which takes care of the G#.
This is a bit of a cut down explanation so hope that makes sense. Feel free to ask more if not.
