Full diminished chords are build by stack only minor thirds. More on this later.Īnother interesting chord I’d like to point out in the full diminished chord (dim7). But the interval between♯5 and♭7 is a major second (not a minor or major third) and therefore augmented seventh chords are not tertian. So for example, we have augmented seventh chords (1 3 ♯5 ♭7 or something enharmonic to that) based on our 5th and 7th degrees (A♭ and B in the case of C Harmonic Minor). That’s 5 more than both the Major and Melodic Minor.īy tertian, we mean they are chords built by stacking only minor and major thirds (more on tertian harmony here). The Harmonic Minor Scale yields 12 tertian seventh chords. Let’s now look at the tertian seventh chords of the C Harmonic Minor Scale The Harmonic Minor Scale has 3 more triads within it than the Melodic Minor and 5 more than the Major Scale. The whole-half step between the Harmonic Minor’s 6th and 7th scale degrees (A ♭and B in the case of C Harmonic Minor) give us some interesting harmonic options! If you have one augmented triad, you automatically have two more since stacking three major third intervals brings us to an octave! That’s a characteristic of the augmented triad. We’ll notice as well that there are 3 augmented chords (E♭, G, and B) that all contain the same notes. The 1 ♭3 ♯4 that makes the F diminished triad, or the 1 ♯2 ♯4 that make up the A♭ diminished triad. It’s interesting to note the enharmonic modal scale degrees that make up the triads. The Harmonic Minor Scale provides us with all four types of triad: diminished (dim), minor (min), major (maj), and augmented (aug). Check back on the modes presented earlier for clarification: Made of the following notes:Ĭ D E♭ F G A ♭ B Here are the triads along with their modal scale degrees. To make things easy to conceptualize, we’ll cover the chords of the specific C Harmonic Minor Scale. Extensions can be added at your own will ?
We will only cover triads and seventh chords here. Let’s see how many tertian chords are in the Harmonic Minor Scale, starting on each of its scale degrees. These thirds can be either major (interval of 4 semitones) or minor (interval of 3 semitones).
Tertian chords are built by stacking thirds. Let’s get into building chords with tertian harmony! Starting with the tertian Chords of the Harmonic Minor Scale The modes are a very useful tool for building chords since each mode presents a scale degree as a “tonic,” making it easy to see the potential tertian and non-tertian chords. Reordering the scale degrees of our parent Harmonic Minor Scale yields these modes. The modes of the Harmonic Minor Scale are as follows: A mode’s scale degrees are in reference to its new starting point. So the first mode of the Harmonic Minor Scale is built on the first note (therefore it’s the same), and the second mode of the scale is built on the second note, and so on so forth. It differs from the Aeolian mode (6th mode of the Major Scale aka the Natural Minor) by one note: Aeolian has a♭7 (minor seventh) and the Harmonic Minor has a 7 (major seventh).īefore we get into chords, let’s quickly go over the Harmonic Minor modes.Įach mode is built starting on a different scale degree of the Scale itself. The Harmonic Minor Scale differs from the Major Scale by its ♭3 and ♭6. W-h-w-w-h-wh-h *w = whole step // h = half step // wh = whole step+ half step* Or, Alternatively by the following intervals: The Harmonic Minor Scale is defined by the following scale degrees: So, without further ado, let’s build the chords of the Harmonic Minor Scale! We’ll also look at a cool application of these chords and how they relate to the Harmonic Minor’s modes. More specifically, we’ll look at the triads and seventh chords. In this article, we’ll discuss the chords of the Harmonic Minor Scale! Inspired by my Chords of the Melodic Minor Scale article, I would like to present chords based on harmonizing other heptatonic scales.