what is the formula for harmonic minor scale

With the knowledge of why a chord progression is the way it is, you give context and meaning to every chord and how the chords function as a cohesive unit.īut why is it so difficult to get this understanding with minor harmony?

We get so caught up in memorizing chords to tunes without understanding the HOW and WHY behind them, that we miss out on a deep understanding of how harmony actually works.Īnd it’s exactly this understanding of harmony that will liberate you from needing to memorize a ton of chords simply by rote. I struggled to understand where a minor ii V came from – Why are the chords in them seem so different from one another? Why are they not like major ii Vs where the chords obviously share the same underlying key center?Įven a minor blues didn’t quite make sense – How does the IV chord become minor? Why do both the I and IV chords use The Dorian mode, isn’t that for ii minor chords? Like most people, I can recall running into a million problems when it came to minor keys…I played minor tunes like Autumn Leaves, Alone Together, and Softly as in a Morning Sunrise for years without really understanding how progressions in minor actually worked…Īnd I played jazz standards like I Hear a Rhapsody and My Shining Hour, not even realizing the important relationship between the major and minor key centers within those tunes. It’s as if their teacher said… Ok, here’s The Dorian mode…now you’re all set when it comes to minor…But there’s so much more to minor harmony…in fact, there’s a whole way that chords FUNCTION in a minor key! From this understanding, you’ll memorize jazz standards faster, understand chord progressions on a deeper level, and improvise with more confidence and clarity.Ĭompared to major harmony, everyone seems to get totally lost when it comes to minor harmony. Whether you’re playing a tune in a minor key or a jazz standard that shifts to the relative minor for a section, you need a solid understanding of how minor harmony works in jazz.

What is the formula for harmonic minor scale