Follow the creation of

a Melodic Minor Scale

Which will take you through the first two forms of minor

scales, so you get a mini review

F minor is the relative minor to Ab Major.

What do we know so far?

F minor shares the same key signature as Ab Major

There are no accidentals. Everything is included in the

key signature.

We need to add something to this scale to make it harmonic

minor . . . A leading tone

Raise this note by a half-step?

No! That’s the 6th note. Remember raise the 7th note to

create the leading tone.

This is the note that

needs to be changed

The seventh note is an Eb. To raise it a half-step, Eb

becomes E♮. E♮ is the leading tone creating a harmonic

minor scale.

Now that we have the harmonic minor spelled out, we have to

do one more thing to turn it into a melodic minor scale. In

addition to raising the 7th note of the scale, the 6th note of the

scale also has to be raised by a half-step.

The Db was raised by a

half-step to D♮

But . . . That’s only ascending

So what happens on the descending melodic minor scale?

Does this look familiar?

It’s the descending portion of the natural minor scale. The descending

portion of melodic minor scales use the natural minor form.

So let’s review the steps to building a melodic minor scale.

Build the natural

minor scale

Build the harmonic

minor scale

(raise the 7th)

Now raise the 6th note

of the scale

Return to the original

natural minor scale