a multitude of names ii : harmonic minor modes

Having gone over some salient features of the melodic minor and its modes it's time to have that same fun with the harmonic minor and its modes.

The harmonic minor differs from the major scale by two notes: it has a b3 and a b6. The b3 is in common with the aeolian (natural minor) and melodic minor. What the harmonic minor has that is different and very unique is the interval between the b6 and 7, an augmented 2nd. This has a decidedly Middle Eastern flavor, and in fact is found in scales of Asian musics (Arabic, Indian...).

When we named the modes of the melodic minor scale we tried to keep to a pattern that utilized the name of the parallel mode in the major scale with one alteration, e.g. the mode starting on the 4th degree of the melodic minor would have to be some sort of Lydian, and and in fact all of its intervals are the same except that this mode of the melodic minor has a b7, so it's called a Lydian b7.

With the harmonic minor modes the situation is a little different: we could keep to the same pattern, but as was also detailed in the melodic minor post, what we need as players/composers is a practical and easy way to deal with this information. When there are 2 alterations it can be easier just to see what mode it's closest to in the major scale modes and then add an alteration.

Here's a tabulation:

mode 1: Harmonic Minor aka Aeolian #7
1 2 b3 4 5 b6 7

mode 2: Locrian #6 (instead of Dorian b2 b5)
1 b2 b3 4 b5 6 b7

mode 3: Ionian #5 aka Ionian Augmented
1 2 3 4 #5 6 7

mode 4: Dorian #4
1 2 b3 #4 5 6 b7

mode 5: Phrygian #3 aka Phrygian Dominant aka Spanish Phrygian (instead of Mixolydian b2 b6)
1 b2 3 4 5 b6 b7

mode 6: Lydian #2 (instead of Aeolian b1 b5)
1 #2 3 #4 5 6 7

mode 7: Superlocrian bb7 aka Altered bb7
1 b2 b3 b4 b5 b6 bb7

These modes are all super-cool, and the Spanish Phrygian is common (if you play through the Spanish Phrygian you'll understand why it's so named -- and if you play classical/flamenco guitar you'll already be quite familiar with it). These modes aren't used so much in jazz^{FN 1}, but definitely in other styles. In fact Satie makes use of them in his Gnossiennes -- especially check out no. 2 (written in 1893, hardly a modern phenomenon).

There is something cool that happens if we examine the Ionian #5. This is a case like the melodic minor: it differs from the major scale by only one tone. If we use this as a basis and compare the modes with the major scale we get the following correspondences:

major scale modes	harmonic minor scale modes
Ionian	Ionian #5
Dorian	Dorian #4
Phrygian	Phrygian #3
Lydian	Lydian #2
Mixolydian	Mixolydian #1
Aeolian	Aeolian #7 (harmonic minor)
Locrian	Locrian #6

Again, the Mixolydian #1 isn't so useful, and when we compare it to another mode that's close we get the Superlocrian, and so Superlocrian bb7.

Now, what I'm about to say is blasphemous to some, buuuut since we need the absolute easiest way as players/composers (musicians) to deal with information sometimes it's easiest to forget the mode names altogether and simply think about the harmonic minor (though this could apply to any mode) over a certain tone. The Spanish Phrygian is a good example: you can think of a Phrygian with a sharp-3 or simply think of a harmonic minor scale up a perfect fourth -- e.g. E Spanish Phrygian could be conceived of as A Harmonic Minor over E. In fact you could probably argue that this is the way a lot of Spanish music was written -- at least in the 19th century: not in a modal framework but in a tonal one.

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1. See The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine, pps. 476 - 478.