OK, I always thought that minor scales were not unlike major scales, a series of seven notes with fixed intervals between them - and that A minor had the same notes as C major, for example.

Now as I review my classical theory, I find that there's a difference between the notes in a harmonic minor scale and a melodic minor scale, and that melodic minor scale has different accidentals depending on whether it's going up or down.

Are these distinctions relevant to folk music? If not, which one is the minor scale we use? If we do have different minor scales, how are they used in playing?

How literally are "harmonic" and "melodic" meant? I mean, if a fiddle and guitar-chorder are playing together in a minor key, does the fiddler use the melodic minor and the guitar use the harmonic minor - so that for one degree (can't remember which) one player would be playing it natural and the other playing it sharped? And as for the up vs. down thing - how do you know if you're going up or down when playing a melody, not just a scale? Is it just the preceding note that determines the direction?

This is confusing.

Marion