Due to popular demand amongst my piano students, I have provided video demonstrations and notation with fingering for all of the harmonic and melodic minor scales, two octaves. This page has been created with the specific needs of my own students in mind, but other visitors to my website are also very welcome to use these free resources.

Minor scales share the same key signature as their relative majors. Read this article for an explanation of relative majors and minors. To find out how to work out the key signatures of all the relative majors, and to see a video demonstration for each major scale, click here.

As well as sharing the same key signature as the relative major; harmonic and melodic minor scales include accidentals. (The natural minor scale is another form of minor scale which only shares the same key signature as the relative major, but doesn't include any accidentals.)

The harmonic minor scale has the same key signature as the relative major, plus the raised 7th degree of the scale. I.e. the 7th note up from the key note of the minor scale is sharpened by a semitone. Count the key note as 1 when counting the degrees of the scale. For example, in an A minor scale, G would be the 7th degree of the scale (because A is 1, B is 2, C is 3, D is 4, E is 5, F is 6, G is 7). If we raise it by a semitone, we get G sharp. When working out the 7th degree of the scale, bear in mind whether or not the key signature affects it. You can find more explanation about this in the article mentioned above.

The melodic minor scale also shares the same key signature as the relative major. When ascending, it includes the raised 6th and 7th degrees of the scale as accidentals. When descending, these accidentals are cancelled and it just follows the key signature, i.e. it only includes any sharps or flats that are in the key signature, no others (like the natural minor, with the difference being that the natural minor follows the key signature with no extra accidentals, both ascending and descending.)

For each of the video demonstrations below, I have played first the harmonic minor scale, then the melodic minor.

A minor harmonic and A minor melodic scales

A minor shares the same key signature as C major, which is no sharps or flats. The harmonic minor has the raised 7th, which is G sharp. The melodic minor has the raised 6th and 7th ascending, which are F sharp and G sharp. For the descending part of the scale, there are no sharps or flats because we just follow the key signature.

A harmonic minor scale

A melodic minor scale

Sharp Key Signatures

E minor harmonic and E minor melodic scales

E minor shares the same key signature as G major, which is F sharp. For the harmonic minor, the raised 7th is D sharp. For the melodic minor, the raised 6th and 7th are C sharp and D sharp, which we just play in the ascending part of the scale. When descending, we just follow the key signature without the raised 6th and 7th, so the only black key we play on the way down is F sharp.

E harmonic minor scale

E melodic minor scale

B minor harmonic and B minor melodic scales

B minor shares the same key signature as D major, which is F sharp and C sharp. The raised 7th for B harmonic minor is A sharp. For the melodic minor ascending, the raised 6th and 7th are G sharp and A sharp. For the descending part of the melodic minor scale the only black keys we play are F sharp and C sharp, because we just follow the key signature without the additional raised 6th and 7th.

B harmonic minor scale

B melodic minor scale

F sharp minor harmonic and F sharp minor melodic scales

The relative major of F sharp minor is A major, so these two keys share the same key signature. That is F sharp, C sharp and G sharp. For the harmonic minor, the raised 7th degree of the scale is E sharp (see the description for G sharp minor below to find out why we don't call it by its enharmonic equivalent name, F). For the melodic minor ascending, the raised 6th and 7th are D sharp and E sharp. Then we just play the three black keys from the key signature on the way down.

F sharp harmonic minor scale

F sharp melodic minor scale

C sharp minor harmonic and C sharp minor melodic scales

The relative major of C sharp minor is E major, and so these two keys share the same key signature. That is F sharp, C sharp, G sharp and D sharp. For C sharp harmonic minor, the raised 7th is B sharp (see the description below for G sharp minor to find out why we don't call it by its enharmonic equivalent name, C). For the melodic minor ascending, the raised 6th and 7th are A sharp and B sharp, then just follow the key signature without the raised 6th and 7th descending.

C sharp harmonic minor scale

C sharp melodic minor scale

G sharp minor harmonic and G sharp minor melodic scales

G sharp minor shares the same key signature as B major, which is F sharp, C sharp, G sharp, D sharp and A sharp.

The harmonic minor has the raised 7th which is F double sharp. This is because the key signature contains F sharp, and the 7th note of the scale (before adding the accidentals) is F sharp. If you raise F sharp by a semitone, you get F double sharp. This is the enharmonic equivalent of G (i.e. the same pitch, and the same white key on the piano). However, we don't call it G because then we would end up with two notes in the scale with the letter name G (G and G sharp), and we would be missing a note with the letter name F. The notes of major and minor scales are named in alphabetical order, without missing a letter of the alphabet. This means we end up with G sharp, A sharp, B, C sharp, D sharp, E, F double sharp, and G sharp for the first octave of the G sharp harmonic minor scale. This is more grammatically correct than calling the notes G sharp, A sharp, B, C sharp, D sharp, E, G, G sharp.

For the melodic minor scale ascending, we raise the 6th and 7th, which are E sharp and F double sharp. Then we cancel these accidentals on the way down and just follow the key signature.

G sharp harmonic minor scale

G sharp melodic minor scale

Flat Key Signatures

D minor harmonic and D minor melodic scales

D minor shares the same key signature as F major, which is B flat. The harmonic minor has the raised 7th which is C sharp. For the melodic minor ascending, when we raise the 6th, B flat (from the key signature) becomes B natural. The ascending melodic minor scale also includes the raised 7th which is C sharp. So we play two black keys (per octave), B flat and C sharp on the way up. For the descending part of the melodic minor scale, we cancel the raised 6th and 7th and just follow the key signature. This means we play B flats on the way down, but no other black keys.

D minor harmonic scale

D minor melodic scale

G minor harmonic and G minor melodic scales

G minor shares the same key signature as B flat major, which is B flat and E flat. For the harmonic minor, the raised 7th is F sharp. For the melodic minor ascending, we raise the 6th and 7th, so E flat (from the key signature) becomes E natural, and F becomes F sharp again. For the melodic minor descending we cancel these accidentals and just follow the key signature,

G harmonic minor scale

G melodic minor scale

C melodic minor and C harmonic minor scales

C minor shares the same key signature as E flat major, which is B flat, E flat and A flat. For the harmonic minor, B flat becomes B natural because we raise the 7th degree of the scale. For the melodic minor ascending, A flat becomes A natural, and B flat becomes B natural because we raise the 6th and 7th. On the way down we follow the key signature (play B flat, E flat and A flat).

C harmonic minor scale

C melodic minor scale

F harmonic minor and F melodic minor scales

F minor shares the same key signature as A flat major, which is B flat, E flat, A flat and D flat. For the harmonic minor, E flat becomes E natural due to the raised 7th. For the melodic minor ascending, D flat becomes D natural, and E flat becomes E natural due to the raised 6th and 7th. Then for the descending part of the melodic minor scale, we cancel those accidentals and just follow the key signature.

F harmonic minor scale

F melodic minor scale

B flat harmonic minor and B flat melodic minor scales

B flat minor shares the same key signature as D flat major, which is B flat, E flat, A flat, D flat and G flat. For the harmonic minor, A flat becomes A natural due to the raised 7th. For the melodic minor ascending, G flat and A flat become G natural and A natural due to the raised 6th and 7th. Then just follow the key signature on the way down.

B flat harmonic minor scale

B flat melodic minor scale

E flat harmonic minor, and E flat melodic minor scales

E flat minor shares the same key signature as the relative major, G flat major, which is six flats. Those six flats are B, E, A, D, G and C. For the harmonic minor, D flat becomes D natural because of the raised 7th. For the melodic minor ascending, C flat becomes C natural, and D flat becomes D natural due to the raised 6th and 7th. For the descending part of the scale, the 6th and 7th are no longer raised, and instead we play all the flats in the key signature.

E flat harmonic minor scale

E flat melodic minor scale

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This free tutorial has been designed to supplement one to one piano and/or music theory lessons with a teacher. If you need more in-depth and personalised guidance than is provided within free tutorials, or you would like regular lessons, you are welcome to contact me to enquire about my availability for lessons via live video call or correspondence.