Previously, we discussed the C major scale (Confession #8 - Learn the Major Scale!) and the C minor scale (Confession #27 - Learn the Minor Scale!).
You've probably heard that the A minor scale is the relative minor scale to the C major scale. In this week's confession, we'll explore just what the heck that means.
THE RELATIVE MINOR SCALE
Most lessons I've seen on the minor scale start with a discussion on the A minor scale. They probably do this because the A minor scale doesn't contain any sharps or flats and thus is a little easier to understand.
I purposely avoided this in Confession #27 - Learn the Minor Scale! and stuck to the key of C because I believe the difference between the major scale and the minor scale are better illustrated when both are presented starting on the same root note, like this:
C - D - E - F - G - A - B - C
C - D - Eb - F - G - Ab - Bb - C
That said, it is important to take a look at the A minor scale because it is the relative minor scale to the C major scale.
To understand what that means, lets' take a look at the A minor scale. The notes are:
A - B - C - D - E - F - G - A
The first thing that you probably noticed is that there are no sharps or flats and that the notes are all the same notes as the C major scale. So how is the A minor scale different from the C major scale? Well, the notes are all the same, but the difference is which note you start the scale on.
This difference is best illustrated by seeing how the pattern of whole steps and half steps changes when we start playing on A instead of C.
Here are two octaves of the C major scale:
C - D - E - F - G - A - B - C - D - E - F - G - A - B - C
W W H W W W H W W H W W W H
When we play from C to C, the pattern of whole steps and half steps is: W-W-H-W-W-W-H
Here is the A minor scale that is hidden in the two octaves of the C major scale:
C - D - E - F - G - A - B - C - D - E - F - G - A - B - C
W W H W W W H W W H W W W H
When we play from A to A, the pattern of whole steps and half steps is: W-H-W-W-H-WW
Again, observe that there are no sharps or flats in the A minor scale because it consists of all the same notes as the C major scale. Also note that it is the same pattern of whole steps and half steps, we just start in a different place in that pattern. For the technically curious readers out there, the minor scale is known as the aeolian mode.
You may be wondering, can our ears really hear a difference based on which note we start on? The answer is yes, they can!
Go back to Confession #16 - Finger 3-4 Independence! (Exercise #1) and listen to the video. The notes played are all natural notes (i.e. there are no sharps or flats), so they are all the same notes as you'll find in the C major scale. But the lick doesn't have that happy major scale feel to it. This is because the lick starts on an open E and repeats that note frequently during the lick. This causes us to hear this lick as being in E phrygian. Don't worry about what that means for now. The point is that we can use the notes of the C major scale to play something that doesn't sound like C major.
Listen to 5 Days in May by Blue Rodeo. The chords for the intro verse are Em, D, Am, C and then G, F, C and D. At first it looks like the song is in the key of G major because the principal chords in G major are:
G - Am - Bm - C - D - Em - F#o
But the song doesn't have a happy major chord feel to it. That's because it's in the key of E minor, which is the relative minor scale to G major. The song starts on the Em chord and that affects they way our ears hear everything else that follows it.
It is because the A minor scale uses all the same notes as the C major scale that is called the relative minor scale.
FINDING THE RELATIVE MINOR SCALE
If you want to know what the relative minor scale is for any particular major scale, there's a simple trick for figuring that out. The root note of the relative minor is 3 frets lower than the root note for the major scale.
For example, the 8th fret of your sixth string is a C. Move down 3 frets to the 5th fret and you'll find an A. A is the relative minor to C major.
Next Week's Confession - Pentatonic Scales (Part 1)
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