Using the Harmonic and Melodic Minor Scales

[Michael]

😎 Hey Johnny,

I know we make use a lot of the natural minor Scales in Saxophone playing, but I was wondering if the Harmonic and Melodic minor Scales are used that often in Improvising? I know with the Harmonic minor that the 7th note of the scale is raised a half step and with the Melodic minor both the 6th and 7th notes of the natural minor scale are raised by a half step too. My only concern, especially with the Harmonic minor, is because of raising the 7th, that would mean the interval between the 6th and 7th would be 3 half steps….to me that seems like it could sound a little awkward to hear played on the Saxophone? We typically don’t have an interval within a scale that’s more than 2 half steps?

[Anonymous]

I find it easier to listen to the 3 scales below on a keyboard.
If you listen to Cmajor, Relative A harmonic minor and Relative A melodic minor.
You start to hear some sounds drawing closer to one sound, and some sounds sound like they are being stetched away from one sound.
This is where you start hearing tension and relaxation.
Lots of improvisation plays on these tricks to give different feelings to their music.
If you listen to the melodic minor when it goes up and down,
it seems to rise and fall naturally even though it plays a different note coming down, if you played coming down with the same note going up, it just doesn’t sound right.
Whereas with harmonic minor, keep the same notes up and down sounds ok.
I’m into crawling with improvisation, and would also be interested to the answer to Michael’s question.

[Author]

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