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Major and Relative Minor Scales
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Often times, scales and keys relate to one another. In other words, a scale or key might have
more than one possible name depending on your point of reference. One example of this is the
Relative Minor scale. Every major scale has a relative minor scale made up of the
same seven notes. So, what's the difference?
As we learned in Phase I, major scales are made up of a pattern or series of whole
steps and half steps (specifically: W,W,H,W,W,W,H). While this is the most familiar note
sequence to most people, there are other possibilities which result in other types of scales.
One of these is the relative minor scale. The relative minor scale's whole step/half
step sequence is Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Half, Whole, Whole.
Pictured above are two examples of relative minor scales; C minor and A minor. Let's first
examine C minor. To begin with, why is it minor? You may remember from our studies on chords
that any chord or scale with a flatted 3rd interval is minor. The third in C is the note E.
The Eb in the example above then, is a flat 3rd making the scale minor.
In addition, you can see that A and B are also flatted. These are the b6th and b7th notes or
degrees of the scale. All relative minor scales have a flatted 3rd, 6th and
7th.
The other example, A minor, is less obvious because, at first glance, it appears to have no
flatted notes. But, when compared to the A major scale, you can see that it too has the
flatted 3rd, 6th and 7th intervals.
The major scale has the notes: A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#. The 3rd, 6th and 7th notes are C#,
F# and G#. Taking the sharps away reduces each note by one half step, the same as adding a
flat. Therefore, C, F and G are b3, b6 and b7. Why then is the scale called the
relative minor scale?
Click to continue...
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