Instead of it being a minor 7 (like it would be if it were a natural minor scale) it is turned into a dominant 7 chord. The V chord is borrowed from the harmonic and melodic minor harmonization. In the video at the top of this post, I explain minor harmony in more depth. It’s better to understand that we have three kinds of minor scales and we are drawing notes from each. However, I don’t think it’s best to think of it this way. You may observe that these are the same notes as the Dorian mode.
The Minor Diatonic Series of 7th Chords is based on borrowing notes from the 3 different minor scales.
#G HARMONIC MINOR SCALE HOW TO#
It’s important to note that the harmonic and melodic minor are variations of the natural minor scale, and so understanding how to harmonize the natural minor scale with 7th chords is the place to start.īut before we do that, let’s take a look at what I call the Minor Diatonic Series of 7th Chords. In this lesson, I’m going to use the three basic kinds of minor scales: natural minor, harmonic minor, and melodic minor.
It’s important for jazz musicians to know how to do this because it helps us understand chord progressions, helps us understand how chords can be related by a consonant scale and can help us become better improvisers. I go into much more detail on how I come up with the results, which will help you understand harmonizing minor scales better. If you don’t know how to harmonize a major scale or haven’t checked out that lesson yet, I would encourage you to do so. This lesson is continuing off of the How to Harmonize a Major Scale with 7th Chords post.