E♭ minor or E-flat minor is a minor scale based on E-flat, consisting of the pitches E♭, F, G♭, A♭, B♭, C♭, and D♭. In the harmonic minor, the D♭ is raised to D♮. Its key signature consists of six flats (see below: Scales and keys).
Its relative major is G-flat major, and its parallel major is E-flat major. Its enharmonic equivalent is D-sharp minor. Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with accidentals as necessary.
Despite the key rarely being used in orchestral music other than to modulate, it is encountered in a small fraction of keyboard music, and has been most popular in Russian pieces. For orchestration of piano music, some theorists recommend transposing to D minor or E minor.
This key is often popular with jazz or blues influenced keyboard players as, using all the black keys along with the A, it allows for an easily playable blues scale.
Read more about E-flat Minor: Well Known Instrumental Music in This Key, Relation To Scales and Keys
Famous quotes containing the word minor:
“To minor authors is left the ornamentation of the commonplace: these do not bother about any reinventing of the world; they merely try to squeeze the best they can out of a given order of things, out of traditional patterns of fiction.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (18991977)