Harmonic Minor Scale Chart

The control deck contain a dropdown menu from which you can select the starting minor key. This instantly changes the chart to display intervals and notes of this key. A scale degree is represented by each stair. Its position on the page indicate the scale function it has within the scale, while its height show the interval from the tonic. Click on a stair to listen to the note. Its frequency and scale function is then displayed at the bottom.

Pressing the arrow keys on your keyboard allows you to navigate up and down through scale degrees. Left takes you down; right takes you up. If you press the spacebar it plays the current note again. It’s great if you want to listen carefuly to one note in particular or for practicing the resolution of that leading tone back to the tonic.

How to Use the Controls

This is the main button that makes the whole scale sound but it does so by walking up the stairs. So at whatever speed you choose it walks up the stairs to the final note in the scale including the characteristic jump up to the seventh degree after the sixth. The pace selector allow you to set the speed of this sequence playing. You could use it slow if studying or faster for a more general impression.

To do this, simply toggle on the compare button which then drops the 7th degree down to its natural minor form. So the augmented second switch to a whole step. You can hear how much the raised leading tone contribute to the harmonic feel. The graphic of the bridge fades out as the chart visually changes to display the natural minor intervals.

From the chart below the stairs, you’ll see a line of chord tiles, representing the diatonic triads built from each scale degree. Click on one of the chords to listen to those three notes stacked over each other. It begins to explain what is special about the harmony of a harmonic minor key. The seventh chord is diminished (leading-tone), and the third-degree chord are an augmented triad.

Volume turns the playback level up or down, which is handy if you’re working in a quiet room or listening through headphones. The Help button expand a help panel with some extra tips on what to listen for during the intervals and how to use the keyboard shortcuts. Fullscreen expands the widget for clearer views of both the controls and the chart, which is useful on small screens.

While you hold down the spacebar to play a note, try comparing the notes above with the compare toggle button. Hold down the spacebar for a note then click the compare button several times to alternate between the natural and harmonic seventh. It is very clear just how much of a pull there is from the leading tone back towards the tonic note. You could of not quite get that feeling from reading about it in theory books.

You’ll notice that the pitch colours change as you move through keyboard but the relationship of the intervals remain unchanged. Try it out in other keys to.