Hungarian Minor

A harmonic minor with one note moved

Start from the harmonic minor and raise the fourth degree by a half step. That is the whole alteration, and it produces the second augmented second: one between the third and the sharp fourth, one between the flat sixth and the seventh, the same interval the harmonic minor already had.

The raised fourth also creates a tritone against the root, so the scale contains both the tension of a diminished fifth and the pull of a leading tone. It is a restless set of notes, and that restlessness is what it is used for.

Why it is also called the gypsy scale

The name gypsy minor attaches to it in English-language teaching, from the Romani ensembles of Hungary and the Balkans whose playing brought these intervals into European concert music. It is worth naming carefully: the scale belongs to a living tradition, and the label is a Western shorthand for it rather than its own name.

Liszt and Brahms took it from that repertoire, and the Hungarian Rhapsodies are where most classical listeners first meet the sound. What was folk practice became a compositional device, which is why the scale has two histories running in parallel.

Building it from any root

Count from the root: whole, half, augmented second, half, half, augmented second, half. In C the notes are C D E♭ G♭ G A♭ B; in A — the most common key for it on guitar — A B C D♯ E F G♯; in E, E F♯ G A♯ B C D♯.

The two three-semitone gaps make the fingering distinctive, and the shape is worth learning slowly: played fast it turns into an effect, and the character sits in how the augmented seconds are approached and left.

The chords underneath

The tonic is a minor triad with a natural seventh above it — a minor-major seventh chord, unusual and unmistakable. The scale also produces a major chord on the flat sixth degree and a diminished chord on the second, so a minor tonic with an augmented-sounding upper structure is its natural home.

A drone works better than a progression, as with the Byzantine scale it is related to. Where a progression is wanted, the pair of a minor tonic and the major chord a half step below the fifth is the sound most writers reach for.

Where it is used

Beyond the Hungarian repertoire it turns up in film scores for the same reasons the Byzantine scale does, and in metal, where the tritone and the leading tone together give the harmonic weight the style looks for. Neoclassical guitar playing uses it as an alternative to the harmonic minor when the harmonic minor has begun to sound predictable.

On piano the raised fourth is the note to watch: the hand knows the harmonic minor, and the alteration falls exactly where the habit is strongest.

What it is confused with

The harmonic minor is the obvious neighbour — one note apart — and the two are close enough that the Hungarian minor is often described simply as its variant. The double harmonic major is the other relative, and the relationship is exact: this scale is its fourth mode, the same seven notes started from a different degree.

The Hungarian **major** is a different scale altogether despite the shared name: 1 ♯2 3 ♯4 5 6 b7, brighter and built on a dominant chord rather than a minor one.

Frequently asked questions