Minor scale construction - A Natural Minor

Following on from last months C Major the A Natural Minor scale is another easy scale to remember in terms of notes.

As the C Major scale is a scale with no sharps or flats, so is A Natural Minor and is what is known as the 'Relative Minor' to C Major. It is made up from the following notes:

A B C D E F G A

If you look at the notes in this scale against the notes in the C Major scale (C D E F G A B C) you can see that the relative minor scale begins on the 6th note of the major scale.
(1 = C, 2 = D, 3 = E, 4 = F, 5 = G and 6 = A).

This relationship is standard for all natural minor scales, with all natural minor scales having a related major scale and all major scales having a relative minor scale.

As with last months scale this scale also has a scale spelling.

As a natural minor scale it's scale spelling is:

1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 8

The important point to remember with scale spellings is that they are all number in relation to the major scale. Have a look at the thread on Scale spelling for more on this.