Memorise Your Minor Scales and Key Signatures!
In our previous blog, we looked at the major sharp and flat keys. Hope you were successful at memorising all those scales and their respective key signatures!
It’s time to tackle the minor scales now. If we use the circle of fifths method from the previous blog, this will give us the relative minor scales. They are like brothers and sisters, different members of the same family. The relative minor scales use the same set of notes as their relative major scale but in a different order, which gives them a specific flavour. Major scales have a more optimistic, happy and bright sound. Our minor scales have a more sad, reflective and at times more angry sound depending how we play the notes in a particular “minor” piece.
Brace yourself and let’s explore the minor sharp scales first.
Minor Sharp Scales:
The order of Minor Sharp Scales is: A - E - B - F# - C# - G# - D# - A#. Look at the order below and notice that A minor scale is the only scale with no sharps or flats. So going clockwise on the circle of 5ths you will find all the minor sharp scales in the correct order. So E minor has 1 sharp, B minor has 2 sharps and this is how we get all the way up to A# minor scale which has 7 sharps.
Minor Flat Scales:
The order of Minor Flat Scales is: A - D - G - C - F - Bb - Eb - Ab. Look at the below diagram to follow the order. Go anticlockwise on the circle of 5ths and you will find all the minor flat scales in the correct order. So D minor has 1 flat, G minor has two flats and this is how we get all the way up to Ab minor scale which has 7 flats. Try to recite the order and repeat it several times in a cool rap style or create your mnemonic to go with it. This will be eventually stored in your long term memory.
Above are the Minor Sharp and Flat Scales and their respective Key Signatures.
Tip 1: If you absolutely cannot remember the order of minor scales, you can use the knowledge of your major scales and their key signatures and go down 3 semitones from the first note of the major scale. Let’s say you are faced with a piece that has 3 sharps or you need to recall which scale contains 3 sharps, you can use this trick. Simply recall your major scale which uses 3 sharps (which is A major), and go down 3 semitones from A and you will end on the note F#. Therefore F# minor is the minor scale with 3 sharps.
Tip 2: If you cannot recall the major scale either, simply look at the last sharp in the group of 3, which is your G#, and go up a semitone which tells you that the major scale is A major, just as we learned in our previous lesson where we looked at the Major scales.
Tip 3: Here are a couple of mnemonics we came up with which you may find fun to use:
Mnemonic for Minor Sharps scales:
And Every Birthday Father Christmas Gulps Down Apples
Mnemonic for Minor Flat scales:
Ants Do Gather Crunchy Food Before Evening
Please remember that A minor (the first scale) does not have any sharps or flats!
Hope you were able to follow the above tips and discovered your own creative way to memorise the minor scales for your ABRSM online music theory exams. We use these tips during our online music theory classes and our students find them very helpful. They can be also a great tool when sitting the ABRSM music theory exams, as well as GCSE and A level music exams.
P.S. If you would like us to post any of your tips on how you managed to memorise scales and key signatures, feel free to write to us. We will review your suggestions and post the most creative one on our site.
All the best on your musical journey!
🎵 Ashbea Music 🎵
Here are some additional resources you can buy to help you on your journey of becoming the best key signature identifier!
