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Jazz Studies With Bill Harrison: Play-Along Tracks Lesson 7 – The Minor Key Mystery
Meet Bill Harrison –
Bill-Harrison-Lesson 7-Aug2010 – Minor Keys (Click above to download the accompanying pdf file for musical examples)
Correct me if I’m wrong about this, but it seems that the subject of “minor” gets short shrift in lessons and discussions about jazz harmony. Perhaps this is because the major scale and its modes take a lot of time to learn and use with ease. Maybe it’s because major scale harmonies (I, vi, ii and V) are so common in standard tunes and the mainstream jazz repertoire. But I think that one of the main avoidance factors is that there are so many kinds of minor scales that many musicians find the whole subject terribly confusing.
I know I did, for many years. So I’m going to do you a favor and (hopefully) de-mystify minor in one short lesson.
When we say that a song (or a section of it) is in a minor key we mean that this chunk of music is written using material from the major scale that shares its key signature. This is the origin of the term “relative minor”. Recall that the natural minor scale (also called aeolian mode) is just the major scale starting on the 6th degree. (Ex. 1) It is your “go to” choice for the chord that is built on the same degree – our old friend vi-7.
Now here’s the allegedly tricky part: Natural minor has an inherent weakness if we want to use it as our home (or tonic) scale. The problem is that this scale has no leading tone (also known as the major 7th). Instead, there is a wimpy sounding whole step from the minor 7th up to the root (or 8). (Ex. 1) What this means is that there is no functional V7 – I present in the natural minor scale. Without that harmonic formula our ability to create tension and release is severely curtailed.
Recall that V7 – I is the most common of all cadences in western music. All of the familiar aspects of the functional harmony we know and love and use every day would be non-existent without V7 resolving to I. The V7 – I cadence depends upon the movement (or resolution) of two notes: the 7th degree of the scale moving up to the root and the 4th descending to the 3rd. (Ex. 2) shows how this works in major keys.
The sad fact is that we can’t construct a dominant 7th chord on the V in natural minor because the 3rd of that chord is minor. So there can be no V7 – I cadence if we use this scale as our home base. What is a composer or improvisor to do if we can’t rely on the strong pull of V going to I? (Ex. 3)
Fortunately this problem was solved several centuries ago by some wily folks who manufactured a new scale by simply raising the 7th up a half step. You most likely already know this one: the harmonic minor. That unique minor 6th / major 7th combination is the result of the need for a leading tone (and therefore a major 3rd on the V chord).
(Ex. 4)
So when we say “minor key” we really mean the harmonic minor scale built on the 6th degree of the relative major key. Functionally speaking, the relative minor for the key of C major is A harmonic minor. We create harmonic minor by raising the 7th degree of natural minor one half step.
There’s really no mystery to it at all!
I have to include a caveat for the harmony mavens: the harmonic minor is NOT the only scale that is used to signify “i” in minor. We’ll discuss the intricacies of the melodic minor scale another day.
And next time we’ll apply this theory to our role as bass line creators.
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Photo: Self-portrait by Melissa Auf Der Maur
Melissa Auf Der Maur is a Canadian bassist who played with Tinker, Hole, and The Smashing Pumpkins. She released her own work and is a photographer with photos published in Nylon, Bust, and National Geographic. She released her ‘90s Rock Memoir “Even The Good Girls Will Cry” on 17 March 2026.
KB: Did you always want to be a singer-musician growing up?
I’ve played music my whole life. In school, I played trumpet and sang in a children’s choir, so music was always within me. My mother was the first female disc jockey on the Montreal airwaves; her record collection played a huge role in my inspiration and love of music.
KB: When did you start playing bass, and why this instrument?
When I was 19, the early 90s music explosion began to percolate in tiny clubs around the world. I was lucky to be a ticket girl at Montreal’s underground music club. In one year, I saw Hole, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, White Zombie, and The Breeders – all had female bass players. That’s when the seed was planted. By the age of 22, I was the bass player of Hole.
KB: Which brands of basses have you used in your career, and which one are you using now?
The first bass that I learned on was a vintage Squier Precision. Hole was sponsored by Fender guitars, so I upgraded to Fender Custom Shop Precisions. That is all I play, but I have a cool vintage 8-string Greco that I use on recordings to thicken up guitar parts.
KB: What equipment do you use or have you used with your basses?
Ampeg SVT amps and cabinets, a couple of Sans-Amp pedals, and that is it.
KB: How did you become a member of Hole, and what is your fondest memory of that time?
Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins was helping scout a replacement for (RIP) Kristen Pfaff, Hole’s bass player. My band, Tinker, opened for them on the Siamese Dream tour, so Billy had seen me play and could vouch for me. Courtney trusted her talented friend, and that was it. I initially said “no thank you” due to my commitment to my photographic studies and the drama and chaos surrounding the band during the “Live Through This” album release. Courtney took it as a good sign that I said no, so convinced me to reconsider, and soon after, I accepted their invitation, in the name of helping put females in the male-dominated landscape of rock music. My fondest memory is every show we played as a mostly female band, symbolizing what a woman could do in a rock band. Every show had a purpose: get more women to play music.
KB: You are a photographer as well. What makes a great picture? Do you shoot in color or b/w?
I started shooting photographs at age 15. Initially only shot black & white and worked in the art school darkroom. In university, I took a color photography course, and shifted mostly and forever to that, because it was easier to process film on the road when I joined a rock band. I experimented with many cameras, point and shoots, manual, polaroids, medium format, and vintage finds. The trick to a good photograph is to shoot many and all the time – the magic is in the edit and selection process.
KB: Are there artists you would love to collaborate with or wish you had?
??I’ve been lucky to collaborate with some of my favorite musicians in my career. I would still love to collaborate with a new generation heavy electronic artist on an analog bass, heavy electronic drums, and synths collaboration project. Take me out of my usual zone, merging the past and future: my love of 80s dark new wave and new artists exploring that genre. It was very futuristic back then, and we are now, after all, living in the future. I am in the mood to play bass to heavy beats I want to dance to.
KB: What are your 7 favorite bass lines in music across all genres? And why these 7?
“Mountain Song” – Jane’s Addiction (love a rambling, rolling bass line – feels like the ocean waves)
“Black Top – Helmet” (was the first bass line I taught myself)
“Gold Dust Woman” – Hole from “The Crow 2” Soundtrack (it was my first bass line contribution to the band)
“Get Ready” – The Temptations (Motown just feels so good, because of the bass)
“Lucretia My Reflection” – Sisters of Mercy (makes me want to hit the dance floor and play bass simultaneously)
“Be My Druidess” – Type O Negative (full chord bass playing at its best by iconic, demonic, Peter Steele, RIP)
“Romantic Rights” – Death from Above (1979 – unique distorted overdriven tone, combined dance rhythm and melodic intelligence, all in one shot – also! Shout out to a bass & drum only band, which is awesome, and we should have more of, but the bass player needs to be a killer to fill that role.
KB: What are you currently up to?
Releasing my ‘90s Rock Memoir “EVEN THE GOOD GIRLS WILL CRY”. Visceral healing process, it was to get it out of me and write it, but I suspect the real magic will begin by putting it into the world and reflecting with others on what the magic of the ‘90s was all about. Powerful music decade that carried us into what is now a brave new world of digital corporate weirdness – may the past shed a light on our future. That’s my hope for this book release and tour.
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