Modes (Part 2)

When you first learn about the major scale it’s fairly straightforward, because they tell you about just one major scale. But the minor scale is more tricky, because they tell you about three—or actually four, two of which are the same!

The most fundamental of these is the natural minor scale. The C major scale goes

C D E F G A B C

The C natural minor scale goes

C D E♭ F G A♭ B♭ C

As you can see the 3rd, 6th and 7th notes of the scale are ‘flatted’: moved down a half-tone compared to the major...