Hi! I need help. I am supposed to have all cromatically adjacent major and minor scales memorized by the end of the summer. If I have them memorized, I can play mallets in the front ensemble this year! Last year I played auxsillary, which was not very much fun. Could you guys explain natural, harmonic, and melodic minor scales to me? I don't quite understand them. How many halve steps and whole steps do they have? How should I go about memorizing all these scales before band camp?

Give me some time, I'll put it all in a Finale and make you a midi file that you can play along with. If you have a midi player that you can change tempo with it would be great, or you could open them with finale and change tempo.

I'm at school right now, but I'll try to get something put together for you tonight. I'll also attach the form for all the scales unless someone beats me to it.

Thanks! That would be awesome!

All scales are made up of a pattern of whole (W) and half steps (H) - (a whole step is the distance of two half steps or from c to d on the keyboard)

Major Scales: W W H W W W H

Example: C D E F G A B C

Minor Scales (Natural Minor): W H W W H W W

Example: A B C D E F G A

Harmonic Minor Scales (Same as Natural minor but raise the 7th scale degree 1 half step) W H W W H -3 H (-3=minor third, three half steps)

Example: A B C D E F G# A

Melodic Minor Scales: (Same as Natural minor but raise the 6th and 7th scale degrees on the way up, lower them back on the way down) W H W W W W H ascending then from the top back down is the same as natural minor.

Example: A B C D E F# G# A then back down A G F E D C B A

I'm working on the midi's will have them done tonight...

ok... To tell you the truth I don't have the scales memorized at all... I can't be told a scale then be able to know the notes immediatly. Here's the easy way to learn the scales, learn the forms for each of the scales. whatever scale you're playing that's the note you start on, for example Ab major, you'll start on the Ab. so then you start the Ab then move up a whole step to the Bb, then move up another whole step to the C, a half step to the Db, a whole step to the Eb, another whole step to the F, another whole step to the G, then a final half step to the Ab again. That's the major scale, whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, then a half step to end on the original note an octave higher. This is the same no matter what note you start on.

If you're doing a natural minor (sometimes just called minor) scale it's the same deal just with different intervals. whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole, whole.

Now for the harmonic minor scales. whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole + half, half. The whole + half = a augmented 2nd, or 3 half steps up.

Now the melodic minor scales. Whole, half, whole, whole, whole, whole, half.

There are some other scales that you might need later on. If you need the forms for those I'll put them up, just ask.

Every single scale possible has 2 half steps in it, the rest are whole steps, except for the harmonic minor since it makes up for half a step lost in the augmented 2nd that it has.

This method teaches you more theory and is much faster and simpiler then trying to memorize all 24 scales. It'll be pretty fast for you to learn this, my piano students get it down in about 1 hour, so it shouldn't take you very long

Here are the midi files quarter=50 (tempo)

This is how your director wants you to memorize them, but it may not be the easiest way (Chromatically vs. Circle of Fifths). For visual learners, learning the circle of fifths is a good way to learn all the major, minor, and modal scales - but for you learning the patterns of steps will probably work the best.

Good Luck!

Thank you very much. This helps a lot.

ooops... My friend pointed out a mistake. I donno what kind of scale I put for the melodic minor... I gotta figure that out but ya don't follow the stupid thing I did for the melodic minor. (do you recognize whatever scale I put up there? I think I had a serious mind lapse.)

I myself thought that doing the circle of fifths is kinda stupid... I don't like it because it takes too long to figure out some keys when I could've just as easly seen it in my head. I still show it to my students if they want to see it.

Also another easy thing for identifying the key signatures for the minor scales is if you take the minor scale base note and you transcribe it up a minor third you have the base note of the major scale wich is pretty easy to tell what the key signature is. For example the E minor scale, E goes up a minor third to G and G has 1 sharp so the E minor scale has one sharp. That's the easy way for the minor scales.

When looking at the major scales when you're doing the keys with flats in them it's easy as well. Take your base note and transcribe it up a minor fourth, that's the last flat you added into the key signature, then just add in the missing flats and you have the key signature.

This is the other way to learn to do the scales. Just get your base note, figure out your key, then play up and down the scale with all the accidentals. These tricks make it easy to figure out the keys.

I still can't figure out what kind of scale that thing is. Anyone have the tiniest clue what it is?