Lately, I’ve been having a good time talking about minor keys, scales, and chords!

(If you’re just now catching the blog, I’d recommend eventually going back to the last 7 or so posts to catch yourself up).

Today, I’m going to show you how to actually use one of the minor scales we’ve been talking about in real-life situations.

Theory is great! It helps you to understand the “what” and “why” behind things. But I’m going to show you how it also allows you to systemically pick what scales to improvise with over certain progressions. It’s not guesswork. There’s actually systems behind a lot of it.

First, you’ll probably need to review this post on the salsa progression I’ll be reusing.

I’ll repost the video below but the in-depth explanation will be found at the page above.

When you’re ready, watch this short clip:

Jeff Goodkind, the instructor in our Salsa Piano 101 course, is basically playing only 3 unique chords in this progression:

C minor
C + Eb + G + C

F minor
F + Ab + C + F

G major
G + B + D + G

He doubles up on the keynote by playing octaves. So you get a “C” on the bottom and on top, for example.

You actually strike those two octave notes first and rebound with the middle notes.

So for the C minor chord, it’s like doing this:

C + C
Eb + G

(The two C’s surround the “Eb + G”)

And you apply the same pattern to the other chords.

This part is better observed by watching the clip above.

Once you’ve mastered it going up (from C minor to F minor to G major), you just do the same thing coming down.

The whole thing looks like this:

C minor
C + Eb + G + C

F minor
F + Ab + C + F

G major
G + B + D + G

F minor
F + Ab + C + F

C minor
C + Eb + G + C

But this is review.

Here’s where I’m going with this.

Out of all the corresponding chords I’ve taught you, this progression should point to one. Let me explain…

First off, it’s utilizing the 1st, 4th, and 5th tones of the scale.

However, the 1st and 4th tones are minor and the 5th tone is major.

When looking for a scale to use over a particular progression, ask yourself this question:

“What possible scales do these chords come from?”

What scale naturally creates a minor chord on the 1st and 4th tone and a major chord on the 5th tone?

Let’s go into our toolbox and recall some of the chords we’ve learned from scales:

C major scale (triads):

1st tone - C major
2nd tone - D minor
3rd tone - E minor
4th tone - F major
5th tone - G major
6th tone - A minor
7th tone - B diminished

(No matches here except for the G major on the 5th degree.)

Let’s keep going to see if we can get closer…

C natural minor scale (triads):

1st tone - C minor
2nd tone - D diminished
3rd tone - Eb major
4th tone - F minor
5th tone - G minor
6th tone - Ab major
7th tone - Bb major

Hmm, we’re getting closer because the 1st and 4th tones are minor chords in this scale. But the 5th tone is not major like the progression we’re learning above. We do know, however, that we can get away with playing a C natural minor scale over these first two chords.

Better yet, we could take it further and play modes of the natural minor scale. In other words, when we’re on the C minor chord, we’d play notes of the C natural minor scale from “C” to “C” (just like normal). But when we get on the F minor chord, we can actually keep playing notes of the C natural minor scale but from “F” to “F” (rather than from “C” to “C”).

So that gives us a totally new scale to work with. To be exact, the “F dorian” mode (…I’ll make sure to talk about the minor scale modes in future posts. Don’t worry, there not much different from the major scale modes).

F dorian
F G Ab Bb C D Eb F

(You can look at it two ways: the notes of the C natural minor scale from F to F or simply the notes of the Eb major scale from F to F. Why? Because our C natural minor scale basically comes from the Eb major scale so by playing this same scale from F to F, we’re essentially still playing the Eb major scale… just changing our frame of reference just like we did to create this C natural minor scale from the Eb major scale. Again, I’ll reserve more space for this on a later).

But again, we’re not all the way there because we still have to consider the harmonic and melodic minor scales. They just may give us a closer match.

Remember, we’re looking for the 1st tone to be minor, the 4th tone to be minor, and the 5th tone to be major.

The natural minor scale gave us two matching chords (the 1st and the 4th chords) but it didn’t really give us a match for the G major chord on the 5th degree.

(And we may never find that match but this is the process of elimination that can help you to find the right scales to play over progressions until you basically internalize what to do in various situations).

C harmonic minor (triads):

1st tone - C minor
2nd tone - D diminished
3rd tone - Eb augmented
4th tone - F minor
5th tone - G major
6th tone - Ab major
7th tone - B diminished

Wow! I think we’ve found something.

Let me isolate just the 1st, 4th, and 5th chords of this scale:

1st tone - C minor
4th tone - F minor
5th tone - G major

By golly! It looks like we’ve found our progression.

So this let’s me know that I can really play around with the C harmonic minor scale over this progression.

Truth be told, the C natural minor and C harmonic minor start out the same way. They only differ by that raised 7th degree at the end. So that’s why the natural minor scale can basically be played over the 1st and 4th chords because it’s essentially the same as the harmonic minor scale at that point. However, when you get to the G major chord on the 5th tone, that’s where things may clash and the raised 7th comes in right on time!

Here are some other ideas:

1. You can either play the C harmonic minor scale or the C natural minor scale over the 1st chord (or notes of it since you probably won’t be able to fit in all 7 tones).
2. When you get to the F minor chord, you can play the C natural minor scale from “F” to “F” over this chord. Or you can mess around with the notes of the C harmonic minor scale trying to somehow use the “B” to connect to the G major chord that’s coming next.
3. When you get to the G major chord, it’s obvious that the C harmonic minor is the match because it incorporates all the notes found in the G major chord (the natural minor doesn’t do that). You can even experiment with playing the harmonic minor scale from G to G if you want. The idea is to have fun and see where your creativity takes you by knowing the right notes to include in your scale, licks, and tricks.

Side note: I know I haven’t talked about the chords of the melodic minor scale yet (it’s coming soon), but let me just share them below without any explanation… for now, at least. This will show you that the melodic minor wasn’t as great of a choice as the harmonic minor scale for this progression because it actually has a major chord on the 4th degree and that may clash.

C melodic minor (triads)

C minor
D minor
Eb augmented
F major
G major
A diminished
B diminished

(But more on this later).

I hope you enjoyed today’s lesson!

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I actually want to start where I left off on friday. If you didn’t get a chance to read my post on the triads of the harmonic minor scale, click here.

I promised you that I’d cover the seventh chords of the harmonic minor scale next so here we go!

First, let’s review how we came up with the triads.

We started with our C harmonic minor scale (which is essentially the same as the natural minor scale except the 7th tone is raised a half step).

C harmonic minor
C D Eb F G Ab B C

Then we took every other note of this scale and created block chords:

1st tone: C Eb G
2nd tone: D F Ab
3rd tone: Eb G B
4th tone: F Ab C
5th tone: G B D
6th tone: Ab C Eb
7th tone: B D F

Once we did that, we determined the names of these chords:

1st tone - C minor
2nd tone - D diminished
3rd tone - Eb augmented
4th tone - F minor
5th tone - G major
6th tone - Ab major
7th tone - B diminished

But I reminded you that these were just triads and that we’d played 4-toned chords in the next lesson so let’s take this concept one step further.

Let’s do the same exact thing we did on friday. Let’s take every other note of the scale but instead of stopping at 3 notes, let’s create 4-toned chords.

C D Eb F G Ab B C D Eb F G Ab B C

C D Eb F G Ab B C D Eb F G Ab B C

C D Eb F G Ab B C D Eb F G Ab B C

C D Eb F G Ab B C D Eb F G Ab B C

C D Eb F G Ab B C D Eb F G Ab B C

C D Eb F G Ab B C D Eb F G Ab B C

C D Eb F G Ab B C D Eb F G Ab B C

Now let’s determine the names of these chords:

C minor-major 7
D half-diminished 7
Eb augmented major 7
F minor 7
G dominant 7
Ab major 7
B diminished 7

Now let’s compare the triads of the harmonic minor scale to their seventh chord counterparts:

1st tone - minor (triad) >>> minor-major 7
2nd tone - diminished (triad) >>> half-diminished 7
3rd tone - augmented (triad) >>> augmented major 7
4th tone - minor (triad) >>> minor 7
5th tone - major (triad) >>> dominant 7
6th tone - major (triad) >>> major 7
7th tone - diminished (triad) >>> diminished 7

One common misconception is that major triads automatically create major sevenths when you add that extra tone to the chord. That is not always true.

Notice both the 5th and 6th triads were major, yet when you changed the chords to sevenths, the 5th tone turned into a dominant seventh chord and the 6th tone expanded to a major seventh chord.

So because the major 7 and dominant 7 chords share the same basic triad, that seventh tone makes all the difference up top.

The same applies to the diminished triad chords. Notice the 2nd and 7th tones were diminished. However, when we expanded our chords, the 2nd chord turned into a half-diminished seventh chord while the 7th tone expanded to a diminished seventh chord.

Lastly, the 1st tone. It was a basic minor chord but when you added the 7th degree, it turned into a minor-major 7 chord.

Whoaa! A “minor-major” seventh chord? You’ve probably never heard that one before!

It’s when the first part of the chord is minor but the seventh is major.

In other words, you may have a C+Eb+G (C minor) on the bottom but a “B” natural up top.

That chord is introduced to us through the harmonic minor scale, among others.

So there you have it! The seventh chords of the harmonic minor scale!

Oh yes, I almost forgot. If you really like these minor chords and what we’ve been doing for the last week or so, then you’ll love what Jeff teaches in our new salsa course. Click here for details.

Until next time!

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If you’re a regular reader, you know that we’ve been on minor scales and chords for about a week.

First you learned the ins and outs of the natural minor scale. Then I gave you a pop quiz on them in this post.

When you thought it was over, I introduced a minor chord progression found commonly in salsa music.

Then we took it a step further and studied harmonic minor scales.

And yesterday, we learned the melodic minor scale.

(Sorry for bombarding you with links. I just thought it’d be a good idea to catch you up just in case you missed one of my prior posts).

Today, I’m going to introduce you to the corresponding chords of the harmonic minor scale.

As you know, the harmonic minor scale is basically the same as the natural minor scale except that it has a raised 7th tone.

C natural minor
C D Eb F G Ab Bb C

C harmonic minor
C D Eb F G Ab B C

You’ve already learned the corresponding chords of the natural minor scale in prior posts.

Now, let’s build the chords for the harmonic scale.

All we do is start from the first tone of the scale and play every other note. This creates block chords from only scale tones. You’ll never find tones in these chords that are outside of the harmonic minor scale (the same rule applies to the diatonic chords of the major and natural minor scales).

Let’s work in the minor key of C and start with triads (three-toned chords).

If you take every other note of the C harmonic minor scale, you’ll get these chords:

(Note: I’m using two octaves because as you get further in the scale, you’ll run out of notes)

C D Eb F G Ab B C D Eb F G Ab B C

C D Eb F G Ab B C D Eb F G Ab B C

C D Eb F G Ab B C D Eb F G Ab B C

C D Eb F G Ab B C D Eb F G Ab B C

C D Eb F G Ab B C D Eb F G Ab B C

C D Eb F G Ab B C D Eb F G Ab B C

C D Eb F G Ab B C D Eb F G Ab B C

See how I did that?

Now let’s actually analyze what these chords are:

1st tone - C minor
2nd tone - D diminished
3rd tone - Eb augmented
4th tone - F minor
5th tone - G major
6th tone - Ab major
7th tone - B diminished

Think about it…

The only chords that are different from those of the natural minor scale are the ones that include the raised 7th. So any chord that has the 7th in it is affected. All other chords are left alone.

Like the 3rd chord. In the C natural minor scale, normally it would be Eb major (Eb + G + Bb) but because the “Bb” is now raised to “B,” that makes this chord an Eb augmented chord (Eb + G + B) instead of a major chord.

Same thing with the 5th chord. In the C natural minor scale, it would be G minor (G + Bb + D) but because “Bb” is now raised to “B,” that makes this chord a G major chord (G + B + D) instead of a minor one.

And finally for the 7th chord. In the C natural minor scale, it would be Bb major (Bb + D + F) but because “Bb” is now raised to “B,” it changes the whole entire chord to B diminished (B + D + F) instead of the major chord it was.

Now keep in mind… these are just 3-fingered triads.

In my next instructional post, I’ll talk about the seventh chords of the harmonic minor scale because they change quite a bit when you add that extra tone.

For now, become a pro at these and you’ll be good to go!

Until next time.

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