Intro
Continuing on from the previous post here’s another write up of music theory notes, this time covering the Minor & Pentatonic Scales and Seventh Chords
Minor Scale
Similar to the Major Scale discussed previously we may also create a Minor Scale (Natural Minor) by following a different pattern of steps and half steps as shown below. Minor scales are generally seen to have a sadder or darker feel as composed to the brighter feel of Major Scales.
Natural Minor Scale: W, H, W, W, H, W, W Giving us: C, D, D#/Eb, F, G, G#/Ab, A#/Bb, C
Pentatonic Scale
Previously we looked at the Major Scale, now we’ll investigate another type of scale known as the pentatonic scale.
As indicated by it’s name a Pentatonic Scale consists of just five notes and can be seen as a subset of a scale, Major or Minor
To form a Major Pentatonic Scale simply eliminate the 4th and 7th scale degrees from the Major Scale, again looking at C Major Scale C,D,E,F,G,A,B the Major Pentatonic Scale is C,D,E,G,A
And the Minor Pentatonic Scale is formed by dropping the 2nd and 6th scale degrees, looking at C Nature Minor the Minor Pentatonic Scale is C, D#/Eb, F, G, A#/Bb
Seventh Chords - Major & Dominant
Expanding on three note triads we can create Seventh Chords which incorporate an interval of a 7th from the root note.
Building on the C Major Triad, adding an interval of a major seventh (11 semitones) we create the Major Seventh Chord
CEG -> CEGB
And adding an interval of a minor seventh (10 semitones) we create the Dominant Seventh Chord
CEG -> CEGBb