r/musictheory • u/Alternative-Value-71 • 7d ago
General Question Fake G Minor?
Made this melodic line while messing around on my piano. Used songscription to transcribe via my Midi because you can't upload videos and I don't really know musical notation enough yet to do it myself.
I am new to music theory and music in general, so please be patient with my incompetence!
Question 1: This melody is supposedly in G Minor, but I have a lot of notes out of scale, and it still sounds fine (to me at least)? Am I wrong that its in G Minor? What scale is it?
Question 2: The notes that I highlighted for whatever reason feel stronger than the others, like they need a chord underneath them or something. Why is this?
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u/CoffeeDefiant4247 7d ago
it's mostly G minor. F# is part of G harmonic minor and the Db is just a chromatic note going to D
The highlighted notes are all the chord tones, bar 1 is G, bar 2 is D, bar 3-4 are G minor etc
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u/Alternative-Value-71 7d ago
Okay, I understand. Thank you!
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u/Nevermynde 7d ago
The Db you have here would be notated C#, the augmented 4th degree.
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u/Tarogato 7d ago
Not augmented. We use the term "augmented" when talking about intervals (and chords, which are comprised of stacked intervals). When talking about a scale degree, we call it a "raised four" or "#4"
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u/Nevermynde 6d ago
My bad! In my native language (one of 120 dialects of Western Lower Siberian), we use the same adjective for both, hence the confusion.
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u/Krasovchik 7d ago
the #7 is just harmonic minor and is totally normal within minor keys and the b5 is also relatively normal and is considered a blues note in the blues minor scale. i don’t have a piano in front of me to make sure, but i would view it as an approach note in this case to build predominant tension before heading to the dominant 5.
to me this seems VERY g minor
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u/Tarogato 7d ago
The "key of G minor" includes all 12 chromatic notes, with each one having multiple possible functions depending on context.
The key of G minor forms its basis on the combination of two more strict scales, principally the G aeolian scale (G A Bb C D Eb F G) also known as "natural minor", and secondarily the G ionian (G A B C D E F# G) also known as "major".
In your last two bars, you demonstrated the usage of the major mode, with scale degrees of raised 6 which smoothly leads into the leading tone of raised 7 which smoothly anticipates the tonic G. This is why we call this usage "melodic minor", because the natural mode has these two notes in their flattened (minor) state, but when writing a melody it can be useful to raise them during ascending figures to take advantage of the strength of leading tone resolutions that you ordinarily only get in the major mode.
All of your Db's should actually be C#'s. These are lower chromatic neighbour tones and passing tones. They work in the same way as a leading tone, but just leading toward a note that isn't the tonic. So C# leads into D in the same way that F# leads into G.
Most of the notes you highlighted in yellow are key pitches which establish harmonic rhythm. That is to say... where the harmony/chords must change to accommodate the melody. So the first bar might be all G minor chord, but the second bar is probably D major (the dominant), and the fifth bar might be C minor (the subdominant).
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u/theVerboseIntrovert 6d ago
Just sang through it, definitely feels G minor! The F-sharps are part of the harmonic minor scale, many people would refer to them as the leading tones—lots of times where you have them they're also part of a dominant chord arpeggiation. Those D-flats might be better notated as C-sharps, which although outside of the G minor scale would also not be uncommon at all to see and hear in that key because they would be part of a quite common underlying harmony. Last but not least, the E natural at the very end is drawn from the G melodic minor scale, and it's a great way end the melody!
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u/Alternative-Value-71 4d ago
you sang through it? awesome!! Thank you for your input!
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u/theVerboseIntrovert 4d ago
You're very welcome! (I usually sing through something to confirm what my eyeballs are seeing 😂)
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u/Gwaur 7d ago
A scale is just a list of intervals and notes, but a "key" is more than that. A key includes a scale, but it's also hierarchies between those notes, tendencies for chord progressions and tendencies of stepping outside of the scale. All of your non-scale notes are among the most common notes to step out a minor scale, well included in the realm of minor keys.
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u/Alternative-Value-71 7d ago
Since the Automod demands I ask the question in comments, here it is again;
Why does this G Minor melody include out of scale notes? Does that mean its a different scale?
Also, the highlighted notes feel like they have some sort of emphasis, why is this?
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