No, the harmonic minor is when the flat seventh of the natural minor is sharped. Natural minor is the exact same thing as Aeolian.
[philosophy digression]
Scales are a tool to help you hear notes. You practice scales to get your fingers and ears and brain used to working together. When you reach Improvisation Nirvana ™ the notes just come out and they’re always right (and brilliant). It happens to me once in a while, but the rest of the time I know what key I’m in and what scale I’m using–dang it.
[/philosophy]
[theory digression]
Playing on all white keys (no sharps, no flats) a scale starting on:
C = Major
D = Dorian
E = Phrygian
F = Lydian
G = Mixolydian
A = Aeolian (natural minor)
B = Locrean
To look at it another way:
C Major = no sharps, no flats
C Dorian = 2 flats (Eb, Bb)–flat 3rd, flat 7th
C Phrygian = 4 flats (Db, Eb, Ab, Bb)–flat 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 7th
C Lydian = 1 sharp (F#)–sharp 4th
C Mixolydian = 1 flat (Bb)–flat 7th
C Aeolian (minor) = 3 flats (Eb, Ab, Bb)–flat 3rd, 6th, 7th
C Locrean = 5 flats–almost never used!
Scales with a flat 3rd are referred to as minor modes, all others major modes (Major, Lydian, Mixolydian). Only Locrean is a diminished mode (flat 3 and flat 5) and because almost nobody uses diminished chords any more, nobody uses the scale.
For our discussion of minors, we’ll use A minor–all white keys. Natural minor = no flats, no sharps. Way back when in music history, somebody wanted to use the dominant chord–E major (with a G#), because it leads so strongly to the A. Putting it in the scale (A, B, C, D, E, F, G#, A) makes the Harmonic Minor. Example: Smooth by Santana (written by Rob Thomas and Ital Shur). The singers bitched (my theory teacher claimed) about the jump from F to G#–[whine]It’s so hard to sing a minor 3rd[/whine], so they made up this thing called Melodic Minor where the 6th AND 7th are raised in the ascending scale, but it’s a natural minor descending (A, B, C, D, E, F#, G#, A, G, F, E, D, C, B, A). Sheesh.
[/theory]
Really, you want a solo that sounds good–who cares about scales??? You’re playing C minor over the C changes, so G minor over the G changes should be fine. Play the scale a billion times over the changes until your ears get used to the sound and your fingers get used to the positions, then start improvising. A lot of it is expecting what you hear. When you hit a non-scale note, everyone else is thinking–“Dude, COOL non-scale note”–while you are gritting your teeth. Let that puppy ring and then say “I wanted to create some harmonic tension” or some such BS. Unless it’s the last note of the solo, in which case you let it ring and then slide to the note you really wanted to play.
IMHO.
In the same vein of what NoCoolUserName said, I’m pretty thankful for people trusting their ear over their scales. The Bebop “scales” didn’t come from music theory but from jazz cats just playing and finding that the added chromatic note (and 8 note scale) allowed for more fluid and melodic lines. They were reverse engineered into a scale after the fact. Nothing sounds more beautiful to my ears than a sweet line of bebop. My biggest leaps in improvisational creativity (and not playing what was just convenient for my fingers) was playing saxophone solos on guitar. It will also tax your technical skills because you’d never come up with sax lines by noodling with a scale on guitar because it’s just physically awkward. Grab a tab of some bebop classics and you’ll see what I mean.
Eddie Van Halen once failed a composition assignment in music class because the teacher said it made no sense. He played it for the class, got a standing ovation, threw his notebook in the air, and walked out.
Larry Carlton never learned to play a single scale and can’t to this day. All he cares about is getting to chord tones on the downbeats. When looking at some of his solos you’d be surprised to find that in some cases he was just playing a pentatonic minor but it never sounded like one.
The exception certainly isn’t the rule. Scales have their place in the very beginning for the reasons NCUN cited above. Abandon them quickly for thinking of melody in terms of improvising over chord tones rather than “scales over chords.”
I agree completely… my band played a cover of “Take Five” by Brubeck at our last show, and I played all the sax lines as well as comping the piano parts in between. My band mates couldn’t imagine how getting the sax parts down could be so hard when I can blaze through heavy metal solos and the like with minimal effort. They thought I was sandbagging!
NoCoolUserName - You’ve schooled me. I feel much better about the scales now… looking at it from a piano standpoint probably would have helped me visualize the scales better (theory-wise) back in the day. Thanks a million! I’m just glad I’m getting this foundation while I’m still in my teens…