A minor

A minor (usually shortened to Am) is a minor scale based on A, which is made up of the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and A.  The harmonic minor scale raises the G to G. Its key signature has no sharps or flats.

Its relative major is C major, and its parallel major is A major. A scale in both A minor and C major can be played on a piano or other keyboard instrument using only the white keys.

Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with accidentals when needed.

Most of the time key signatures were cancelled whenever the new key signature had fewer sharps or flats than the old key signature, in modern popular music, this is only done when C major or A minor replace another key.Matthew Nicholl & Richard Grudzinski, Music Notation: Preparing Scores and Parts, ed. Jonathan Feist. Boston: Berklee Press (2007): 56. "In popular and commercial music, the old key signature is cancelled only if the new key is C major or A minor."

 Well-known classical music in this key 

Violin Concerto in A minor BWV1041 - Johann Sebastian Bach
Piano Sonata in A minor, K. 310 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Bagatelle in A minor "Für Elise" - Ludwig van Beethoven
Violin Sonata No. 4 Op.23 - Ludwig van Beethoven
String Quartet No. 15 Op.132  - Ludwig van Beethoven
Caprice No. 24 (Paganini) - Niccolo Paganini
Prelude #2 in A minor, Op. 28 #2 - Frédéric Chopin
Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54 - Robert Schumann
Variations on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 35 - Johannes Brahms
Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16 - Edvard Grieg
Oboe Concerto in A Minor - Ralph Vaughan Williams
Symphony No. 6 - Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 4 - Jean Sibelius
Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini - Sergei Rachmaninoff

 References 

Category:Minor scales
Category:Musical keys