Melodic Minor Scale

Natural Minor Scale Harmonic Minor Scale Major Scale Augmented and Diminished Intervals

Melodic minor is the only one of the three minors that differs by direction:

Direction	Structure	Relative to natural minor
ascending	raise the 6th and 7th	A♭→A, B♭→B
descending	restore them	back to A♭, B♭

C melodic minor up: C D E♭ F G A B C C melodic minor down: C B♭ A♭ G F E♭ D C

Why it is built this way

It solves two problems at once, and the costs cancel each other out:

Requirement	Solution	Side effect
a leading tone (raise the 7th) so dominant function works	raise the 7th	steps 6–7 become an augmented second, awkward to sing (the problem of [[concept:harmonic-minor
a melody that sings smoothly	raise the 6th too, when ascending	the two directions now differ, so notation must state both

Melodic minor is the lesser of two evils. Once the sixth is raised, the ascending 6–7 step is a whole tone (A–B, easy to sing), so ascend with both raised; descending has no need of a leading tone, so restore them and let the line soften back toward natural minor.

A practical detail

In real music the rule is not applied mechanically:

descending, if a dominant chord follows, the seventh often stays raised, because the harmony needs the

leading tone;

ascending, if a line merely passes through rather than heading for the tonic, the sixth is sometimes left

unraised.

So the more accurate statement is: melodic minor describes a tendency, not a rule to be obeyed note by note.

Diagram: two directions

Listen: up and down differ

Press Up, then Down. One scale with two forms — listen to the height of the sixth and seventh.

Common misconceptions

"A scale can only run one way." Melodic minor is the one common scale whose ascending and descending structures differ; that is its definition.
"You must memorise three separate minors." Start from natural minor, raise the 7th for harmonic minor, raise 6 and 7 going up for melodic minor — all three follow.
"Pieces must follow the rule strictly." Real writing is flexible (see above); the rule describes a tendency.
"Melodic minor has no key signature." The signature still follows the tonic; the raised notes are accidentals marked on top of it.

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Listen in the library

Scales, Arpeggios, and CadencesC13:22Scale exercises play the ascending and descending forms separately — the most direct way to hear that the two directions differDetailsSonata in A Minor, K.175C13:50A sonata in A minor — the raised sixth and seventh in ascending minor-key runs are melodic minor's ascending formDetailsBallade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23 (Live)C18:35A ballade in G minor — descending lines drop back to natural minor, contrasting both directions inside one passageDetails

All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).

Sources

旋律小调上行为升第 6、7 级、下行还原为自然小调，为通行乐理表述
该做法源于避免和声小调的增二度、同时保留升 7 级的导音功能

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.

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