Reckless Tram ISSUE 2

Harmonic Minor
This, strangely, was the standard minor scale I was
taught during my classical piano training as a child. It
was only years later that I realised that its applications
were predominantly in Eastern music, and that the
natural and melodic minors were far more ubiquitous
in the pop, rock and indie music that I was listening to.
Its relative rarity in modern Western music, however,
makes it a great tuning for taking you outside of your
melodic comfort zone. Compared to a natural minor
key, the only difference is the raising of the seventh
note in the scale by a semitone, but this small change
instantly transforms the whole feel of the key.
To give you an idea of the harmonic minor’s
application in western pop/rock music, listen to Dire
Straits’ Sultans of Swing or Kashmir by Led Zeppelin,
and note how it’s used to add colour to the songs.
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