Harmonic Minor
Natural minor with the seventh raised back up. That single change gives a minor key a leading tone and a proper dominant chord, and it leaves a gap between the sixth and seventh degrees that is wider than any step in an ordinary scale.
- 7 notes
- 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 7
- the raised seventh
which styles use it
- Flamenco
- Metal
- Film music
- Classical
How it is built
Take the natural minor scale and raise the seventh degree by a half step. In A that means G sharp instead of G. The distance from the flattened sixth to that raised seventh is three semitones, an augmented second, and it is the sound people describe as Spanish, Middle Eastern or dramatic depending on what they grew up with.
Darker and more theatrical than natural minor. The wide step in the upper half is impossible to miss once you know to listen for it.
Where to use it
Wherever a minor key needs a cadence that actually lands. Also in flamenco, metal and film scoring, where the wide step is the point rather than a side effect.
The chords that go with it
The reason this scale exists: building a chord on the fifth degree now gives a dominant seventh instead of a minor chord, so the V to i cadence works in minor the way it does in major.
What it gets confused with
With natural minor, which differs by exactly one note, and with the double harmonic scale, which has two wide steps rather than one.