Diatonic Triads in Minor

Do the same stacking exercise on the natural minor scale and you get a different fixed pattern: i minor, ii° diminished, III major, iv minor, v minor, VI major, VII major. Notice degree v is minor, not major — this is the detail that makes natural minor feel like it doesn't pull strongly back home, since a minor v lacks the leading tone that gives a dominant its pull.

That's exactly why the harmonic minor scale exists in a harmonic context: raising the 7th degree turns v into V (major, with a real leading tone) and turns VII into vii° (diminished) — both now behave like their major-key counterparts for cadence purposes, even though the rest of the scale stays in the minor sound.

In practice, a lot of minor-key music mixes scale forms freely within the same phrase: melody lines often use natural or melodic minor, while the cadence chords borrow the harmonic minor's raised 7th. This isn't cheating — it's the normal, expected way tonal minor-key music works.

In the exercise below, a triad from the A natural/harmonic minor scale lights up — identify its Roman numeral the same way you did for major.