Harmonic Minor, I don't get it

[Metallicka]

I decided I'd learn a new scale as I already know major, minor, their pentatonics and the blues minor and major. I decided I'd learn the harmonic minor but then when I saw that the forumula said #7 it confused me. If you sharpen the 7th you get the 1st meaning there's only 6 different notes. What the hell, am I wrong or is there some explanation to this?

[CrGuitar]

Harmonic Minor is really really simple you're just confusing yourself.

You take any major scale (eg C) and you take the 6th note (A) start the scale from there and you have A minor. All A minor harmonic is is A minor - a b c d e f g

with it's 7th degree sharped.

a b c d e f g#

Melodic minor sharps the 6th and 7th degrees of natural minor scale. IIt works well when ascending the scale but descending i think you naturalize the 6th sharped degree ...or maybe both.

[wild_axeman]

Yeah that's a simple one.:)

The 7th in the major scale is a "major 7th" (7)
The 7th in the minor scale is a "minor 7th" (m7 or b7) one fret lower than the "major 7th" of the major scale

a "major 7th" interval can be found one fret (or 1 half step) back from the root while the m7 (or b7) is found 2 frets (or 2 half steps) back from the root.


A Major scale
A B C# D E F# G#

A minor scale
A B C D E F G

A Harmonic minor (raise the 7th)
A B C D E F G#


So the harmonic minor raises the seventh from a m7 to a M7

[Mettra]

Yeah, in a minor scale, the 7th is two half steps from the next root. Back in the day, composers amended the 7th one half step higher so they could have a leading tone into the root, which is what they were accustomed to.

The harmonic minor and melodic minor are awesome scales, imo. They're sort of minor/major major/minor, which is cool and sounds good.

[~SStork~]

This might help clarify,
the harmonic minor scale is based off the Aeolian(minor) mode, not the Ionian (major) mode. In the Aeolian, there is a whole step between the vii and the i so you can sharpen the 7th without just going to the i again

[Metallicka]

Thanks y'all I get it now. I was thinking the forumula was sharpen the seventh of the major scale doh, now I realise you sharpen the 7th of the minor it makes sense. I knew it was a mistake by me sumwhere.

So if you base the formula on the major scale it would be this:

1-2-b3-4-5-b6-7 = Harmonic minor
1-2-b3-4-5-6-7 = Melodic minor

[wild_axeman]

So if you base the formula on the major scale it would be this:

1-2-b3-4-5-b6-7 = Harmonic minor
1-2-b3-4-5-6-7 = Melodic minorcorrect