The Harmonic minor Key
Harmonic minor occurs more often than you think. Even if it doesn’t initially sound like a harmonic minor song, it may be that in a chord progression, only a single chord is harmonic minor.
Modes / Scales
Modal Interchange
Let’s take an example of a pop chord progression that switches to harmonic minor on one chord: Am, G, F, E.
In the above example, we are in the key of A minor. To make it a bit simpler, we can also say that we are in the key of C major (the parallel key of A minor is C major). Accordingly,
- Am is the VI chord (Aeolian)
- G is the V chord (Mixolydian)
- F is the IV chord (Lydian)
- E is the III chord (Phrygian)
The only thing that doesn’t quite fit here is that E should actually be E minor. If you don’t know this yet, you should first look at the major key.
Practical Variant Sure, now you don’t just know why I should play harmonic minor over the E chord. But I’ll show you a simple trick. The actual scale that should be played over E minor is, as explained above in the steps, Phrygian.
The only difference between E minor (which the chord theoretically should be) and E major (which we ultimately have in our chord progression) is the third.
Just like in algebra: What is done on the left side must also be done on the right side (or? Did I understand that correctly back then? :P) So we raise every minor third in the Phrygian scale to a major third, then we automatically get a new scale -> Phrygian Dominant.
The Phrygian Dominant scale, also known as Mixolydian b9b13 or Spanish Phrygian scale, is the fifth degree of the harmonic minor scale.
This means we take the harmonic minor scale and start it from the fifth note (instead of the first).
Theoretical Variant
Let’s assume again that our chord progression is in A minor (which would actually be correct). Here is a comparison table of the A natural minor and A harmonic minor scales.
As you can see here, the V degree (E is the 3rd degree in the major key, but the 5th degree in minor) is not major, but minor. If you have problems with the minor key, check it out first. So we do the same again. We look at which key the 5th degree is a major chord. Coincidentally (not really a coincidence) it is again the 5th degree of harmonic minor. So we should play harmonic minor from the 5th note over this “inappropriate” chord (since E is on the 5th degree!).
Applying Harmonic Minor
How do you apply this scale?
There are various examples. One could write a song in this key. Mani Matter has already done it with “dr sidi abdel assar”.
Another example would be “Uninvited” by Alanis Morissette, which we will now take a closer look at:
- Bars 1–8 In the intro and (also later) the melody is in D Phrygian Dominant (5th degree harmonic minor).
- Bars 9–14 Then all the tension is resolved with D Mixolydian, which turns into Ionian in bar 15 (C is the major seventh of the key).
So, the harmonic minor scale or one of its modes can be used in various ways. Either as an entire song (dr sidi abdel assar), just as part of a song (Uninvited), or only at specific points/chords (modal interchange chord).
Improvisation
Improvising with one of the modes, especially with Phrygian Dominant, can be very exciting.
For example, let’s play E Phrygian Dominant. I chose this scale because you can let the open E string resonate along with it.
Let the open E string ring out and play the scale along with it, or try to sustain certain notes.
Melodies can range from “wow” to “wohoohow!” :P
Cheatsheet
You can download a cheatsheet with the notes, chords, and diagrams here.
