You might have already noticed something. (OK, TWO of the resources we listed in the previous lessons stated this directly) The A natural minor scale is A — B — C — D — E — F — G. The C major scale is C — D — E — F — G — A — B.

C major:

A natural minor:

This relationship has a name. A minor is the relative minor of C major. C major is the relative major of A minor.

We didn't state this directly, but maybe you noticed. The major scale pattern (WWHWWWH) is the same as the natural minor one (WHWWHWW), just shifted.

Major:      W W H W W W H
Minor:  W H W W H W W

In our last lesson we taught that a minor scale is a major scale with three notes flatted (3,6,7). But, when you take a major scale and flat those three notes you get another major scale. This means, that you don’t need to remember a major scale and then alter half of its notes to get the associated minor scale, you can also just find the relative major scale, start on the correct note and not alter it at all.

In practice this is much quicker and easier. Its important to know and understand the alteration rule, which is why we taught that first, but going forward you’ll probably find yourself relying more on this method.

The relative minor always starts on the 6th degree of the major scale.

C major: C — D — E — F — G — A — B. The 6th note is A, so A minor is the relative minor.

G major: G — A — B — C — D — E — F#. The 6th note is E, so E minor is the relative minor.

Going the other direction: the relative major starts on the 3rd degree of the natural minor scale.

A minor: A — B — C — D — E — F — G. The 3rd note is C, so C major is the relative major.

This pattern is very important in music and you'll likely end up referencing it often.

This is the practical payoff. Because relative keys share the same notes, they share the same key signature.

• C major has no sharps or flats. Neither does A minor.
• G major has one sharp (F#). So does E minor.
• Eb major has three flats (Bb, Eb, Ab). So does C minor.

This is different from parallel keys, which share the same root but not the same notes — like C major and C minor. We'll get into those later. Relative keys share the same notes but have different roots.

This means that when you see a key signature, it could be either the major key or its relative minor. Two sharps could mean D major or B minor. You can't tell from the key signature alone — you have to listen to the music and figure out which note sounds like home.

See if you can name the relative minor for each of these before revealing the answer.

What's the relative minor of F major? The 6th degree of F major is D, so the relative minor is D minor. Both have one flat (Bb).

What's the relative minor of A major? The 6th degree of A major is F#, so the relative minor is F# minor. Both have three sharps (F#, C#, G#).

What's the relative major of G minor? The 3rd degree of G minor is Bb, so the relative major is Bb major. Both have two flats (Bb, Eb).

Give it a try — name the relative key for each prompt.

Major	Relative Minor
C	Am
G	Em
D	Bm
A	F#m
E	C#m
B	G#m
F	Dm
Bb	Gm
Eb	Cm
Ab	Fm
Db	Bbm
Gb	Ebm

There's a pattern here that connects all of these pairs. If you line them up in a circle... well, that's the next lesson.

• Brad Harrison Music - Minor Scales - We've been linking a lot of Brad's videos here. They're great!

Give this a shot. Feel free to peek at the above table, but try to do it in your head first! Good luck!

Thirsty for more?

Go back to the Key Signature Trainer with a new challenge: for every key signature it shows you, try to name both the major key and its relative minor before answering. Two sharps? D major and B minor. Three flats? Eb major and C minor.