Why is harmonic minor used so much but only on specific keys?
I get that there are 3 forms of the minor(5 if you count Dorian and Phrygian as minor).
I have noticed though that the minors on which harmonic minor is used more than natural minor are very specific. A minor and E minor are 2 examples of this.
Most minors in my experience are played mostly in the natural form. D minor, G minor, F minor, and even C minor I have noticed being this way.
D is the most common key for Dorian mode(In fact Bach wrote 2 Toccata and Fugue in D minor pieces, 1 being the most famous and in D natural minor and the other one being unknown by most people and in D Dorian).
But I still don't get why most minors are played mostly in the natural form and only a few minors are played mostly in harmonic mode. I mean if I were composing a piece in A minor, I would use the natural minor.
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Composing in pure minor is pretty much the same as composing in Major. The sharp 6s and 7s of melodic and harmonic minors add more possibilities. More possibilities = More compositions.
First off, let's define things a little. When composing a piece using exclusively natural minor, we would refer to this as being Modal in nature; when using melodic and harmonic minor at times and natural minor at other times, it would most often be considered Functional in nature. When you find exclusively harmonic or melodic minor, we could make an argument for it being either Modal or Functional depending on how the piece utilizes the tonality.
The choice of using exclusively natural minor or including harmonic minor and/or melodic minor is basically the choice of the composer. There are tendencies based on genre, so you may be noticing some patterns as a result of that. Most Classical music will utilize harmonic and/or melodic minor (earlier Baroque music tends to be more modal and some Romantic and Modern era music also used a modal approach) and is basically unrestricted as far as what key the piece would be in, so if you looked exclusively at Classical music, I would guess that your thought process would change a bit. Most Rock music, by my estimation, tends to be modal in nature, as well as being guitar based, so you're more likely to see standard guitar keys (A, E, D, G, C, etc.) using a modal approach.
The main difference between modal and functional approaches has to do with how the chords move and work within the piece. The initial intention of harmonic and melodic minor was to add a leading tone to the V chord to increase the feeling of tension and resolution. This approach typically uses natural minor throughout a lot of the piece and switches to harmonic or melodic minor when the V chord is being played. Modal minor tends not to use a V-i cadence in this way. We tend to find different cadential figures in these pieces, such as bVII-i. These two approaches can have very different affects on the overall feel of the piece and depending on what you're going for, it could be considered inappropriate for the genre to do so, for instance, if you were trying to write a piece and sound like Mozart, you would want to use a Functional approach, or things just won't sound like Mozart.
When a piece is using exclusively harmonic or melodic minor, it's possible that it is functional, using a V-i cadence, but more likely it would be modal. This sound is often said to have an eastern feel and often employees a drone or pedal tone. The use of a pedal tone on guitar encourages the use of open strings, so you would most likely run into A minor and E minor, as they are the lower strings and provide a thicker tone for the drone that will support the melodic activity more strongly.
I would say that I haven't noticed a particular pattern for which keys employee functional or modal harmony and I'm pretty sure your thoughts are the result of the type of music you listen to. Perhaps try checking out some different genres or widely within the genres you have listened to to see if this changes your thoughts.
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