Originally Posted by: grape nutwell there are 3 types on minor keys.

melodic minor
harmonic minor
and natural minor

the natural minor is dirived from the relative major so if the relative major was C
C D E F G A B C you would count either 2 steps back for 6 steps forward and you would find that it is A, so the relative minor of C is A so the natural minor of A would be A B C D E F G A (w-h-w-w-h-w-w) the harmonic minor is pretty similar it creates a half step between the 7th note and the root, so in A minor it would go A B C D E F G# A (w-h-w-w-h-w-1 1/2) I don't remember or understand the melodic minor, and it sounds really similar to the major. so I don't use it when I write. to answer your question you would keep the original chords of the relative major for the natural minor, and the G# of 1-1/2 steps I don't know about. I hope that helps.

Almost right.
First of all musicians today no longer use the phrase natural minor, because that implies that you are using natural notes only; and if you play the same scale in other keys you stop using natural notes only. The name for that scale is the minor scale or the Aeolian mode.
Secondly, the "A minor scale" is not derived from the "C major Scale". The parent scale of A minor, is A major, to which you flat the third, sixth and seventh degrees. The A minor scale or the Aeolian mode happens to be related to C major. That`s why it`s called RELATIVE. Right?
Thirdly, you have a half step between the seventh and the octave ,
not the root.
And the melodic minor doesn`t sound similar to the major, the only thing is that you need to know how to play it ascending and descending.
Here is the melodic minor ascending in the key of A:[A-B-C-D-E-F#-G#].
The chords that you would use for the melodic minor are:
Am(M7)
Bm7
Cmaj7b5
D7b5
E7b13
F#1/2dim9
G#Alt