One of the things I teach my violin students is how to do natural minor scales. The AMEB don’t have them in their syllabus, but they sure sound pretty when you play them as a round! I also teach the natural minor scales to my piano students so they can know/understand the melodic minor scale on the way down.
My violin students learn the natural minors from second grade onwards, but I have written out the G Major Scale and G Natural Minor scale for them to do as a warm up in our String Group.
When I played in String Ensemble at the Performing Arts High School I attended, we always warmed up with a scale or two played as a round. We would be asked which scale we’d like to play, and sometimes we were experimental. Melodic Minor scales always sound wrong, because you’re going to have some doing the raised 6th and 7th, and then others doing the natural minor on the way down. Harmonic minor scales are pretty and so are major scales, but I really like natural minor scales in 3 groups.
I will post more scale rounds up as I write them out for my students. Keep your eyes peeled!
