E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (2024)

Minor scales have a dark and mysterious sound that is used to create tension and emotion in music. They’re essential scales to learn for composers and musicians, but they can be a bit confusing as there are three different types.

In this post, we’re going to be exploring the natural, melodic, and harmonic forms of E minor scale. So, if you’re ready to dive into the key of E minor, let’s get started!

Table of Contents

E Natural Minor Scale

The first form of E minor that we will look at is the natural minor scale.

It’s made up of seven notes starting on E (which is known as the keynote). It then follows the natural minor scale formula of whole and half steps.

This gives us the notes: E F# G A B C D

As you can see, it has one sharp note: F#

E Natural Minor Scale in the Treble Clef

Here are all the notes of E natural minor scale in the treble clef, ascending and descending.

E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (1)
E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (2)

E Natural Minor Scale in the Bass Clef

Next up, we have E natural minor scale in the bass clef, ascending and descending.

E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (3)
E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (4)

E Natural Minor Scale in the Alto Clef

The least common of all the clefs, here we have E natural minor scale in the Alto clef, ascending and descending.

E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (5)
E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (6)

E Natural Minor Scale in the Tenor Clef

And finally, here are all the notes of E natural minor scale in the tenor clef, ascending and descending.

E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (7)
E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (8)

Natural Minor Scale Formula

The natural minor scale, like every other type of scale, is constructed by using a certain combination of intervals between each note.

The formula, using whole steps and half steps, is:

Whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step.

This is abbreviated toW W H W W W H.

E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (9)

Using the British terminology of tones and semitones, this would be:

Tone, semitone, tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone.

Which gets abbreviated toT S T T S T T.

E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (10)

E Harmonic Minor Scale

The next form of E minor scale we’ll look at is the E harmonic minor which is slightly different from the natural minor in that it has a raised 7th note.

So, the notes in E harmonic minor are: E F# G A B C D#

Like E natural minor, it also has an F#, but, notice that the seventh note is raised from a D to a D#.

E Harmonic Minor Scale in the Treble Clef

First, let’s look at E harmonic minor scale in the treble clef, ascending and descending.

E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (11)
E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (12)

E Harmonic Minor Scale in the Bass Clef

Next, we have E harmonic minor ascending and descending in the bass clef.

E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (13)
E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (14)

E Harmonic Minor Scale in the Alto Clef

The least common of all the clefs, here we have E harmonic minor ascending and descending in the alto clef.

E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (15)
E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (16)

E Harmonic Minor Scale in the Tenor Clef

And now we have E harmonic minor in the tenor clef, ascending and descending.

E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (17)
E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (18)

Hamonic Minor Scale Formula

The harmonic minor scale, like every other type of scale, is constructed by using a certain combination of intervals between each note.

The formula, using whole steps and half steps, is:

Whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, half step, whole and a half step, half step.

This is abbreviated toW H W W H WH H.

E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (19)

Using the British terminology of tones and semitones, this would be:

Tone, semitone, tone, tone, semitone, tone and a semitone, semitone.

Which gets abbreviated toT S T T S TS S.

E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (20)

E Melodic Minor Scale

And the last type of minor scale we’ll look at is E melodic minor scale. This one is a bit different from the others, though.

When ascending, it’s different from the natural minor as its 6th and 7th notes are raised by a half step.

This gives us the notes: E F# G A B C# D#

But, when descending, the 6th and 7th notes are flattened.

This means that it’s the same as the natural minor scale when descending, giving us the notes: D C B A G F# E

E Melodic Minor Scale in the Treble Clef

Let’s take a look at E melodic minor scale in the treble clef, ascending and descending.

E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (21)
E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (22)

E Melodic Minor Scale in the Bass Clef

Next up, let’s take a look at E melodic minor scale ascending and descending in the bass clef.

E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (23)
E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (24)

E Melodic Minor Scale in the Alto Clef

Now we have E melodic minor scale in the alto clef, ascending and descending.

E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (25)
E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (26)

E Melodic Minor Scale in the Tenor Clef

And here’s E melodic minor scale in the tenor clef, ascending and descending.

E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (27)
E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (28)

What is the Key Signature of E Minor?

To make playing in a certain key easier for the musician to read, we can use a key signature.

This helps us know to play certain notes sharp or flat without having to read an accidental each time.

E minor has the same key signature as G major, which has one sharp in its key signature: F#

Here’s the key signature for E minor in the treble, alto, tenor, and bass clefs.

E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (29)

What is the Relative Major Scale of E Minor?

Every minor scale has a relative major scale, and every major one has a relative minor one. But what is the relative major scale of E minor?

The relative major scale of E minor is G major.

Here is G major scale, which uses all the same notes as E natural minor but starts on G, which is its keynote: G A B C D E F#

E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (30)
E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (31)

But how do we know that G major is the relative major scale of E minor?

Well, to work out the relative major key of a minor one, all we have to do is go up three half steps (semitones).

So from E, we go up one half step to F, a second half step to F#, and a third half step to G: E > F > F# > G

To learn more about the relative major of E minor, see our guide to G major scale here.

Conclusion

That’s it for our guide to the scale of E minor! We hope it helped make a bit more sense of everything.

Feel free to use this post as a reference and let us know if you have any other questions.

E Minor Scale: Natural, Harmonic And Melodic (2024)
Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Wyatt Volkman LLD

Last Updated:

Views: 6051

Rating: 4.6 / 5 (46 voted)

Reviews: 93% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Wyatt Volkman LLD

Birthday: 1992-02-16

Address: Suite 851 78549 Lubowitz Well, Wardside, TX 98080-8615

Phone: +67618977178100

Job: Manufacturing Director

Hobby: Running, Mountaineering, Inline skating, Writing, Baton twirling, Computer programming, Stone skipping

Introduction: My name is Wyatt Volkman LLD, I am a handsome, rich, comfortable, lively, zealous, graceful, gifted person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.