And interestingly, they sound pretty different too. For example, the tonic of G major is G, while the tonic of E minor is E. Be sure to save it for later! How Relative Keys are differentĪs we have already discussed, relative keys are considered family because they share the same notes and the same key signature.īut if they share the same notes, how are they different from each other?Īlthough relative keys are made up of the same notes, they have a different tonic. That is the order I organized the list in below. But it can also be helpful to think of these in order of how many flats/sharps they have (C & A minor have 0 sharps, G and E minor have 1 sharp, etc.) Note that the chart above is in chromatic order C, C#, D, etc. (Save the image farther down to Pinterest if you want to keep this handy!) C major Of course, if you want to cheat, I’ve made a little chart just for you! □ Here are ALL of the relative major and minor keys that there are. Chart of Relative Major & Minor Keys/Scales The relative major can be found on the 3rd note of any minor scale. The note you land on is your relative major key! This time, start on the tonic of the minor key, and go 3 half steps UP. Now what about if you are in a minor key and you want to find the relative major? Lucky for you, this is pretty easy-it is just the opposite of what we did above. You can do it by just thinking about it, but it is a little harder. Note: I highly recommend figuring this out on a piano, because you can see the visual. You can see this way you don’t count in half steps anymore, you simply count up to the 6th note of the scale. Here is another way to think of it: the relative minor can be found on the 6th note of any major scale! So if you know your major scales well, you can simply count up to the 6th note and start there for the relative minor scale.īelow is an example of this using the G scale. Once again, count down 3 half steps to find the relative minor key. Here’s another example, this time with a harder key: B flat. You can see this visually in the photo below! Now that I’ve arrived on E, I know that the relative minor key is E minor! Then I would go down to F# (half step #1) then down to F (half step #2) and finally down to E (half step #3). If you are in a major key and you want to find the relative minor, it is super simple.Īll you have to do is go down 3 half steps from the root of the key.įor example, if I’m in G major, I would start on the note G. So there really is no difference between the two when we are talking about finding the relative major or minor. But a scale in this context refers to the 7 notes that make up any given key. I tend to use the terms interchaneably, because they are pretty much the same thing.Ī relative key is just a bit broader of a term, referring to a key as a whole. relative scaleīefore we continue, let’s talk about the difference between a relative key and a relative scale. Note: if you are teaching this concept to a child, definitely hone in on the family analogy! You can bring home that these keys are similar yet different, just like a family. But now, let’s delve deeper to see them in practice. That is the basic definition of a relative key or scale. Likewise, the key of A minor also has no sharps are flats. For example, the key of C major has no sharps or flats. Every major key has a minor key with the same amount of sharps or flats, and in fact, the same exact notes! Because of this similarity, these two keys or scales are considered to be in the same family. The term “relative key” in music most often refers to a minor key that has the same key signature as a major key (or vice versa). In this guide I will teach you everything you need to know about it in plain English! Have you ever heard someone use the term “relative key” and wondered what it meant? Or maybe they said something like “that was the relative minor scale!” These terms refer to something very specific in music theory.
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