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The A Minor Scale
The A minor scale shares its notes with C major, so in its natural form it's all white keys. The harmonic and melodic forms raise the notes near the top, adding G-sharp, and then F-sharp as well. Let's notice how that small change at the top of the scale shifts both the sound and where the hand needs to be.
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A Minor Scale Overview
| A Minor Scale Overview | |
|---|---|
| Keyboard Layout |  |
| Staff Layout |  |
| Key Signature | No sharps ♯, No flats ♭ |
| Notes of Scale | A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A |
| RH Fingering | 1 2 3 - 1 2 3 4 - 5 |
| LH Fingering | 5 - 4 3 2 1 - 3 2 1 |
| Relative Scale | C Major Scale |
| Parallel Scale | A Major Scale |
Visualize the A minor scale layout on the piano
These charts show the overall layout, or terrain, of the A minor scale in each of its three forms.
Natural Minor
Harmonic Minor
Melodic Minor
The natural minor uses only white keys, the same notes as C major. As a terrain, it’s completely flat: an unbroken line from A to A.
Read the A minor scale on the staff
Natural Minor
Harmonic Minor
Melodic Minor
Here is the A natural minor scale on the staff, one octave up and back down.
Play the A minor scale with hands alone
Let’s start with each hand on its own. Every scale divides into two core positions, the groups of notes the hand can hold in one position: a group of three notes played with fingers 1-2-3 (red on the charts) and a group of four played with 1-2-3-4 (blue).
The A minor scale uses the same fingering as C major. In the right hand, A, B, and C form the three-note group and D, E, F, and G the four-note group, with the top A on the fifth finger. In the left hand, the bottom A takes the fifth finger, B, C, D, and E form the four-note group, and F, G, and A the three. The fingering stays the same in all three forms, even where the sixth and seventh notes become black keys.
The charts below show the core positions of the A minor scale in each of its three forms.
Natural Minor
Harmonic Minor
Melodic Minor
A useful way to work with the core positions is in three stages:
- Block: play all the notes of each core position together, moving up and down the keyboard. This lets us see each position as one shape and get used to the pattern repeating.
- Crawl: play one note at a time, but hold each note down until the whole position is under the hand, then pause before moving on. This builds the physical sense of each grouping.
- Anticipate: play legato, releasing each finger as the next one plays, while keeping the next position in mind before we arrive at it.
Play the A minor scale with hands together
When we put the hands together in A minor, the sync points are the thing to follow: the moments where both hands land on the same finger, or where the fingers form a mirror image. They fall in the same places in all three forms, even though some of the notes change, and the examples below use the harmonic minor.
The 3rd fingers meet on C and on F.
The thumbs come together on D and E, where fingers 1 and 2 form a mirror image, the “crab claw”.
The same three stages work for sync points:
- Block: find each sync point and play it on its own, outside the scale.
- Crawl: play the scale up and down, stopping on each sync point to look at it and notice how it feels under the hands. There’s no need for legato here.
- Anticipate: play in a steady rhythm, seeing each sync point coming and landing on it with a slight accent.
Expand the A minor scale to more octaves
Once one octave feels consistent, we can extend the scale further up the keyboard. The right hand passes the thumb under to A instead of finishing on the fifth finger, and the core positions repeat; the left hand simply continues the core positions, with the thumb taking the place of the fifth finger on each A until the bottom.
Natural Minor
Harmonic Minor
Melodic Minor
Here is the A natural minor scale in two octaves, ascending and descending, with fingering.
Avoid common mistakes in the A minor scale
Because the natural minor is all white keys, it’s easy to forget the G-sharp in the harmonic form, or the F-sharp and G-sharp going up in the melodic form. It helps to decide which form we’re playing before starting, and to look ahead to the top of the scale.
Like C major, the natural minor has no black keys to orient the hand. The core positions and sync points are what keep the fingering on track.
Other techniques related to the A minor piano scale:
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