Sharp Melodic Minor Scales

Just as the harmonic minor scales had double sharps for certain ones, the melodic scales have the same case for most when you are dealing with the scales with sharps. For scales with double sharps on the ascending part of the scale those double sharps are lowered to what ever the key signature indicates. If the note is natural in the key signature then its natural on the descending but if the key signature says its sharped then you keep it sharped. Double sharps that are being lowered by a half step are lowered to a single sharp.

e melodic minor

b melodic minor

f# melodic minor





c# melodic minor

g# melodic minor

d# melodic minor

a# melodic minor

Flat Melodic Minor Scales

Harmonic scales are only raised at the 7th. Melodic scales are raised at the 6th and 7th each by half a step. When the scale is ascending the raising of the notes is applied but when going back down the scale the notes are each lowered by half a step.

Melodic scales have a different interval pattern than the others.
Whole step Half step Whole step Whole step Whole step Whole step Half step

a melodic minor would end up looking like:

d melodic minor

g melodic minor

c melodic minor

f melodic minor





b-flat melodic minor





e-flat melodic minor





a-flat melodic minor

Sharp Harmonic Minor Scales

For the harmonic minor scales with flats in them made the seventh note natural but when you raise a note that is already sharp it makes it a double sharp.
A double sharp looks like:



A double sharp means that instead of raising the note one half step, it is raised two half steps.


e harmonic minor

b harmonic minor

f# harmonic minor

c# harmonic minor

g# harmonic minor

d# harmonic minor

a# harmonic minor

Finding Key Signature & Flat Harmonic Minor Scales

Harmonic minor scales have a special pattern between the notes like the major scales had.
That pattern is: Whole step Half step Whole step Whole step Half step Whole and a half step Half step
These steps are called intervals. For harmonic minor scales the raising of the 7th note applies when the scale is ascending and descending.

When you are working with minor scales you need to find the corresponding key signature from the major scales. When you are give a minor scale you take the letter name of it and either count three notes up or six notes below to find the matching key signature.
If you are given A minor, in order to find the key signature you'll count three notes up: A-B-C and C is the corresponding major so you take the key signature from C major which is no sharps and no flats so that's the key signature for A minor.
Another way to do it is going A-G-F-E-D-C. I recommend using the first way since it's faster and easier to do but what ever works for you is what matters.
When counting the notes you must remember to include the first letter of the minor scale otherwise it'll be all wrong.

Another example: D minor.

D-E-F                    F Major has 1 flat: Bb so you take this key signature and apply it to D minor.
   or
D-C-B-A-G-F  

Familiarizing yourself with this method will help a lot with learning the harmonic minor scales.
A harmonic minor scale is the same as the natural minor but raising the 7th note.

A minor has no sharps or flats but A harmonic minor has the B raised.
When you raise the seventh note you raise it by half a step. So you would raise B to B-sharp which is the same as C since there is no note between those two.

a harmonic minor looks like:





d harmonic minor

g harmonic minor

c harmonic minor

f harmonic minor

b-flat harmonic minor

e-flat harmonic minor

a-flat harmonic minor

Sharp Minor Scales

All but the first two minor scales with sharps have sharp in their name. The order of the sharps apply the same way they did in the major scales. FCGDAEB.


e minor has 1 sharp: F-sharp

b minor has 2 sharps: F-sharp and C-sharp.

f# minor has 3 sharps: F-sharp, C-sharp, and G-sharp.

c# minor has 4 sharps: F-sharp, C-sharp, G-sharp, and D-sharp.

g# minor has 5 sharps: F-sharps, C-sharp, G-sharp, D-sharp, and A-sharp.

d# minor has 6 sharps: F-sharp, C-sharp, G-sharp, D-sharp, A-sharp, and E-sharp.

a# minor has 7 sharps: F-sharp, C-sharp, G-sharp, D-sharp, A-sharp, E-sharp, and B-sharp.

Flat Minor Scales

Minor scales get more complicated than majors scales do. There are natural minors, harmonic minors, and melodic minors. This post is only covering the natural minor scales. The first scale to begin with is A minor. This is the equivalent to C major. Like the major scales, every minor scale starts on the note of its name. The order of the flats are still the same as used in the major scales.

a minor has no sharps or flats.

 d minor has 1 flat: B-flat.

g minor has 2 flats: B-flat and E-flat.

c minor has 3 flats: B-flat, E-flat, and A-flat.

f minor has 4 flats: B-flat, E-flat, A-flat, and D-flat.

b-flat minor has 5 flats: B-flat, E-flat, A-flat, D-flat, and G-flat.

e-flat minor has 6 flats: B-flat, E-flat, A-flat, D-flat, G-flat, and C-flat.

a-flat minor has 7 flats: B-flat, E-flat, A-flat, D-flat, G-flat, C-flat, and F-flat.

Scale Degrees

Every note in a scale has a special name for it. These special names are called scale degrees.

The first and last note is called the tonic. They are the same name simply because it is the same note but different octaves.
The second note is called the supertonic. In Latin, "super" means above.
The third note is called the mediant. You might have heard mediant in math before and know that it means middle. This mediant is called that because its in the middle of the tonic and the dominant.
The fourth note is called the subdominant. In Latin, "sub" mean below ergo its the note below the dominant.
The fifth note is called the dominant.
The sixth note is called the submediant. This is the middle of the subdominant and upper tonic.
The seventh note is called the leading tone.

Any major scale can be formed using a certain formula. This formula will help to know if the next note in the scale is half a step high or a whole step higher.
The formula is:

Whole step Whole step Half step, Whole step Whole step Whole step Half step

For example in the C Major scale:

C to D          D to E          E to F       F to G          G to A          A to B          B to C
Whole step   Whole step   Half step   Whole step   Whole step   Whole step   Half step

C = tonic
D = supertonic
E = mediant
F = subdominant
G = dominant
A = submediant
B = leading tone

Sharp Major Scales

After learning the order of the flats, the order of the sharps is exactly the mirrored image of that order.

The order of the flats are BEADGCF.

The order of the sharps are FCGDAEB.

Only two sharp scales have sharp in its name.

G Major has 1 sharp: F-sharp.

D Major has 2 sharps: F-sharp and C-sharp.

A Major has 3 sharps: F-sharp, C-sharp, and G-sharp.

E Major has 4 sharps: F-sharp, C-sharp, G-sharp, D-sharp.

B Major has 5 sharps: F-sharp, C-sharp, G-sharp, D-sharp, A-sharp.

F-sharp Major has 6 sharps: F-sharp, C-sharp, G-sharp, D-sharp, A-sharp, E-sharp.

C-sharp Major has 7 sharps: F-sharp, C-sharp, G-sharp, D-sharp, A-sharp, E-sharp, B-sharp.