Fundamentals--Beckwith
Exercises Music for Minor Mode
These exercises will help give you a thorough understanding of the natural minor scale, its key signature, its relations to major scales and their key signatures, its variants, and their relations to minor key signatures. If at all possible, use a piano, electronic keyboard, or audible software so you can hear what the scales sound like. For each tonic given below: a. On the first staff, write whole notes on steps 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-1 of the scale indicated. Leave room for a potential accidental before each note. b. On the keyboard, write X on each key of the natural minor scale (W H W W H W W). c. Referring to the keyboard, add accidentals to the natural minor scale on the staff at left. d. Examine the accidentals you have used. On the second staff, organize them into standard order and position and write them as a key signature. Leave room for two before the bar line. e. After the key signature, write the tonic of the scale you have made. Fill in the "__ minor" blank under the staff. f. Read the key signature to find the relative major. Write its tonic in same the measure and label it "__ major." g. In the first measure of the staff at right, use accidentals (not key signature) to write the harmonic form of the same minor scale. Circle each scale degree (note and accidental, if any) that is different from the natural minor. On the keyboard, write H on each key used in harmonic but not natural minor, with an arrow from the key it replaces. h. In the next measure, use accidentals to write the parallel (tonic) major scale on the given tonic. Circle each scale degree that differs from the natural minor. i. On the third staff at left, organize the accidentals from step h into a key signature. Write the tonic. Label it "__ major." j. On the third staff at right, write the (natural) minor key signature. Then write the melodic form of the scale upward and downward. Use accidentals only to change the effect of the key signature or to cancel a previous change. Do note add any bar lines. Circle each scale degree that differs from natural minor. On the keyboard, write M on each key used in melodic but not natural minor, with an arrow from the key it replaces.