Guitar Reviews

 HARMONIC MINOR Fig. 1 What is a Harmonic Minor Scale? Looking back at modes of the major scale , a Harmomic Minor Scale can be seen as a Natural Minor (Aeolian Mode) with a major seventh note(Fig. 1) Fig. 2 Fig. 2 above shows a regular A Aeolian Mode. The Aeolian Mode is the 6th Mode in the Parent Scale, in this case the scale of C, whilst Fig. 1 shows the Harmonic Minor comprisong of the altered 7th note.  The Leading Tone of the Harmonic Minor As our ears can very easily pick up intervals in music. We can tell a half, or a whole step interval. An augmented second interval (3 half steps) would always cause trouble for composers and performers. Composers had set rules when writing melodies so no unexpected interval jumps would create an unwanted sound in the melody. The whole step movement in the Natural Minor, or Aeolian Mode, between the 7th note and the octave was something that somewhat concerned composers, so they sharpened the 7th create a 'leading tone' so it would na...

 Guitar Modes  If you find this article useful, please subscribe, it really helps my blog. A melodic scale is a progression of notes a particular order.  The idea of "mode" in Western music theory has three progressive stages: in Gregorian chant theory, in Renaissance polyphonic theory, and in apparent symphonious music of the common practice period. In each of the three settings, "mode" joins the possibility of the diatonic scale, however contrasts from it by additionally including a component of song type. This means that repertories of short melodic figures or gatherings of tones inside a specific scale, so that, contingent upon the perspective, mode assumes the significance of one or the other a "particularized scale" or a "generalized tune". Present day musicological practice has stretched out the idea of mode to prior melodic frameworks, like those of Ancient Greek music, Jewish cantillation, and the Byzantine arrangement of octoechoi (the ...