(piano music)
- Hey guys and welcome back
to music theory for the dropouts.
My name's Cassi Falk and today we're going to talk about
the relationship between major and minor scales.
So a major key is when we talk about a group of seven notes
that all belong together to create a certain sound.
If we start with the easiest one, C major.
We'll represent it with something called a C scale.
Let's look at this major scale pattern.
From C to D this is called a whole step.
From D to E we have another whole step.
From E to F we have a half step
because there's nothing in between.
F to G is a whole step.
G to A is a whole step.
A to B is a whole step.
And B to C is a half step.
So if we apply this pattern to any start point on the piano
we can figure out any type of key signature that we have.
So again, the pattern is whole, whole, half,
whole, whole, whole, half step.
So let's take that same pattern and apply it now
starting on G to figure out our G key signature.
So from G we're going to do our whole step.
Whole, whole, half,
whole, whole
and to get our whole step we have to skip over this F key
and go to F sharp to G.
When we talk about a key signature,
you want to think about it like a last name.
My last name is Falk so my key signature would be Falk.
In the G scale the key signature is F sharp.
So we've got G A B
C D E
F sharp G.
Let's take that one more time and now apply it starting on F
so same thing with the pattern,
we've got our whole step, whole step, half step,
and here is a whole step from B flat to C
whole step, whole step, and half step.
This black key that we played was B flat.
We had F, G, A, B flat,
C, D, E, F
so that key signature has a B flat.
So those are three of the many major keys that we have.
So let's talk about the relationship now
between the minor keys.
Let's start with the key of G major
which we found has an F sharp in it.
G A B
C D E F sharp G
So think of that key signature again as a last name
that key signature is also applied to its relative,
its cousin E minor.
The way to find out the relationship and how it's related
is we're going to go to the sixth note of the scale.
One, two, three, four, five, six
so the relationship between G major is E minor.
There's another way we can figure it out
is going down three semitones or three half steps
from the starting point of the G scale.
One, two, three.
So the G scale with F sharp,
that's also going to be applied to the E minor scale.
So we have E, F sharp,
G, A, B, C, D, E.
So as you can see, it had the exact same notes
as the G scale, we just started it on a different point.
So that's why it's called the relative minor
because they share the same key signature.
So have fun exploring the piano at home
with the whole step and half step pattern of the major scale
and see if you can figure out other minor keys
and we will see you at the next lesson.
(piano music)