Scales › Neapolitan minor

Neapolitan minor scale

exotic minor, b9 + major seventh

What color?

Harmonic minor with a b9 (R b9 b3 11 5 b13 7): an exotic, dramatic minor color, somewhere between Spanish and classical. The b9 and the major seventh frame a strong tension.

Origin & history

A harmonic minor with a minor second, whose name refers to the "Neapolitan" chord (♭II) beloved of Classicism and Romanticism. A dramatic color of 19th-century art music.

Which chords to play it on?

Outside the functional consensus: this is an exploration color. Lay it over a vamp or a held chord to tint your improvisation with an unexpected flavor, rather than inside a cadence.

Try it in a real chart

Paste a chord chart into the tool: Pentania tells you, chord by chord, when this scale fits — and what other colors are open to you. Open the tool →