A-flat minor

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A♭ minor

Relative key	Cb major
Parallel key	A♭ major
Enharmonic	G♯ minor
Component pitches
A♭, B♭, C♭, D♭, E♭, F♭, G♭, A♭

Also see: A-flat major, or A minor.

A-flat minor is a minor scale based on A-flat, consisting of the pitches A♭, B♭, C♭, D♭, E♭, F♭, and G♭. For the harmonic minor, the G♭ is raised to G♮. Its key signature has seven flats (see below: Scales and keys).

Its relative key is C-flat major (or, enharmonically, B major), and its parallel major is A-flat major. Its enharmonic equivalent is G-sharp minor.

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

Although A-flat minor occurs in modulation in works in other keys, it is seldom used as the principal key of a piece of music. However, Leoš Janáček uses it for his violin sonata and the organ solo of his Glagolitic Mass, and in Frederic Loewe's score to the 1956 musical play My Fair Lady, the Second Servants' Chorus is set in A-flat minor (the preceding and following choruses being a semitone lower and higher respectively). Instead, pieces in a minor mode that have A flat's pitch as tonic are nearly always notated in its enharmonic key, G-sharp minor, because of G♯'s appreciably simpler key signature. As a result, only works expressly notated as such may reasonably be considered to be in A-flat minor.

[edit] Scales and keys

v • d • e Diatonic Scales and Keys
	flats sharps major minor major minor 0 C, a 1 F d G e 2 B♭ g D b 3 E♭ c A f♯ 4 A♭ f E c♯ 5 D♭ b♭ B g♯ 6 G♭ e♭ F♯ d♯ 7 C♭ a♭ C♯ a♯
lower case letters are minor the table indicates the number of sharps or flats in each scale

[edit] External links

• Overview of Compositions with 7 Accidentals

[edit] References

• List of Chopin's works sorted by opus.