This post is going to be short because the concept is so simple… if you know your major scales!
Basically, every major scale comes with a paired minor scale.
We call that the “relative minor” of whatever major key you’re in.
How do you know where to find it? It’s simple.
Go to the 6th tone!
Let’s take C major, for example:
C major
C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
The 6th tone is “A.”
That means, “A” is the relative minor of C. Very simple!
C major (relative major) / A minor (relative minor)
Db major (relative major) / Bb minor (relative minor)
D major (relative major) / B minor (relative minor)
Eb major (relative major) / C minor (relative minor)
E major (relative major) / C# minor (relative minor)
F major (relative major) / D minor (relative minor)
F# major (relative major) / D# minor (relative minor)
G major (relative major) / E minor (relative minor)
Ab major (relative major) / F minor (relative minor)
A major (relative major) / F# minor (relative minor)
Bb major (relative major) / G minor (relative minor)
B major (relative major) / G# minor (relative minor)
Now here’s the part that’s going to make you jump up and down…
To play, let’s say, the “A minor” scale, all you have to do is play all the notes of the “C major scale” (its relative major) — beginning and ending on “A.”
In other words, “A minor” and “C major” share the same EXACT notes. The only, and I mean the ONLY difference is the starting and ending notes of their scales.
So if this is the “C major” scale (I’m going to use two octaves for this example):
C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C
Then, this is the “A minor” scale:
C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C
In other words:
A B C D E F G A
Was that simple or what? So if you know your major scales, you should also know your minor scales now!
Until next time —
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
sir please i want you to indicate their keys on the fret for example my key c on my piano is C E G. so please indicate this on the guitar fret for me thanks.
wow this helped me so much! thankyou for sharing!!!
Wow this is an amazing trick..i had so much trouble with trying to remember the minor chords with the whole step half step method…but this is a piece of cake!!!Thank you SOO much for this.. I feel like the cloud of minor scale confusion is gone..Thank you!!
Dear sir.,
I have been practising the both Major & Minor scales for the last three months.Please let me know how playing of these major & minor scles will
help in playing the songs. please do reply
with thanks. Yours sincerely ., Prasad
Hi… glad u asked this question… once you learn all the scales and chords it will be very easy to pick up songs just by listening to the songs. Moreover u will know what exactly u r playing. On the other hand, if u learn chords directly den ul be more of a BLIND GUITARIST….!
hope dis helped…
thank you this helped a lot but oyu could do some more of the harder examples.
I am doing my grade 2 on clarinet and find it hard to learn scales, is there any other methods of learning i could use?
i thank you a lot because all the other sites seem to want you to buy things which i can affor and is proberly a scam!(i think that is the web adress to my bebo im noy sure…) xx
Hi, uh, I’m a clarinettist and I would like to know how does this match from the bflat clarinet notes, since this is for, I assumed, piano, right? It’s kind of confusing for me… Please help!
Same notes, being b flat doesn’t change anything except the actual sound.
Great!!!!! So helpful!