Singing Natural Minor Scales for Contrast

In the last lesson, you learned to sing full major scales both ascending and descending. Now we’ll shift gears and introduce a contrasting tonality: natural minor.

In Western music, we primarily use both major and minor tonalities to express emotional contrast. Where a major scale might sound triumphant or calm, a minor scale often evokes introspection, melancholy, or tension. Learning to hear and sing both helps you become more expressive and improves your tuning flexibility across different musical styles.

In this lesson, you’ll explore natural minor scales—a foundational type of minor scale that’s useful for ear training, tuning awareness, and tonal contrast. You’ll learn how these scales differ structurally and emotionally from major scales, and you’ll develop strategies to sing them accurately.

What is a Natural Minor Scale? (2–3 minutes)

Solfege Reminder
In Do-based natural minor, we use the following syllables:

• Ascending: Do – Re – Me – Fa – Sol – Le – Te – Do
• Descending: Do – Te – Le – Sol – Fa – Me – Re – Do

These syllables are derived from their major counterparts by lowering the 3rd, 6th, and 7th scale degrees:

• Me = lowered Mi
• Le = lowered La
• Te = lowered Ti

A natural minor scale is a series of eight notes (including the octave) built from a specific pattern of whole and half steps:
W – H – W – W – H – W – W

Notice: The major scale was W – W – H – W – W – W – H. Both have two half-steps, but they are in different places.

Example in A Minor:
A – B – C – D – E – F – G – A

This is also the relative minor of C Major—they use the exact same notes but start from a different tonic. In this course, we’ll still call the tonic Do, because we use Do-based solfege for both major and minor scales.

C Major: C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C
A Minor: A – B – C – D – E – F – G – A

🎧 Listen & Identify

• Does this sound bright or happy to you?

• Does this sound dark, sad, or moody?

• Notice how the tonality changes even though the notes are the same.

These shifts in tonal center affect emotional impact, phrasing, and tuning tendencies.

Singing a Natural Minor Scale (5–6 minutes)

We’ll use the VoSci Method again: Listen → Audiate → Sing 

Step 1: Listen

Ascending Scale:

Descending Scale:

Ascending & Descending Scale:

Step 2: Audiate

Play the drones above. Audiate singing the scale silently in your mind.

Did you mentally hit all the correct notes? Repeat as needed.

Step 3: Sing Aloud

Play the drones (below) and sing an ascending scale, a descending scale, and an ascending & descending scale.

Step 4: Transpose and Repeat

Try the same exercise in:

• A Minor

• E Minor

You can access more keys in the lesson files or in the Foundational Skills section at voicescience.org.

Common Challenges & Fixes (2–3 minutes)

• Mental Defaults to Major? This is pretty common, spend a bit more time listening and audiating.
• Tuning Trouble on Half Steps? Think of it as small of a distance as you can. Worst case you sing the same note instead of moving.
• Pitch Drift? Minor scales lack a strong leading tone, so use sustained drones or sing against a keyboard reference to stabilize tuning.

Apply & Practice (1–2 minutes)

Daily Practice Goals

• Sing ascending and descending natural minor scales in 2–3 keys
• Practice the repeating minor scale pattern once or twice daily
• Spend at least one round per day in audiation—hearing the full scale in your mind before you sing

Record Yourself: Listen back to identify accuracy and clarity, especially around Me, Le, and Te.

When to Move On: Once you can consistently sing the natural minor scale and the challenge pattern with at least 80% accuracy across two or more keys, you’re ready for the next lesson.

Challenge Activity: Repeating Scale Pattern in Minor (2–3 minutes)

Do Re Do Re Me Re Do Re Me Fa Me Re Do Re Me Fa Sol…
Continue up and back down using Do-based minor syllables (Do, Re, Me, etc.).

Score + Audio provided for natural minor version.

Focus on tricky moments like Re-Me and Sol–Le—those small half steps require your full attention.

Coming Up: Now that you’ve built fluency with both major and natural minor scales, we’ll zoom in on the space between notes. Lesson 7 introduces small interval practice—starting with minor seconds, major seconds, and minor thirds—to help you fine-tune your pitch control and unlock more accurate, expressive singing.