Hey Friend,
How did you do with the natural keys I sent you Saturday? Pretty straightforward, yes?
Something that should be abundantly clear to you by now is that the major scale sounds like the major scale, regardless of the key. If you stick with the pattern, it really doesn’t matter what note is the root.
Now for a little trick to double your knowledge and ability…
Did you know that if you learn a major key, you have also learned a minor key? That’s right, you get two for the price of one!
How?
Built in to each key is something called a “relative.” For each major key, there is a relative minor key, and vice versa.
Many of you know the A Minor Pentatonic scale - it is the default pentatonic box pattern taught by instructors all over the globe. It’s also one of the most commonly used scales in Rock and Blues music for juicy solos.
Well, the A minor pentatonic is derived from the A minor diatonic scale (just a wordier way to say minor scale). A minor scale has seven notes (like the major scale) while a pentatonic only has five notes (“penta” in Greek means five).
The A minor scale is the “relative minor” scale to the C major scale. It just so happens that the exact same notes that occur naturally within the C major scale also occur naturally within the A minor scale.
So the two scales are relatives. A minor is the “relative minor” to C major, and C major is the “relative major” to A minor.
Here are the scales visually:
C major: C D E F G A B (C)
A minor: A B C D E F G (A)
Something important to keep in mind is the interval pattern. Because the relative minor scale starts with a different root note than the major scale, the pattern shifts, but it doesn't change.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
C D E F G A B C | | | | | | |
W W H W W W H
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
A B C D E F G A
| | | | | | | W H W W H W W
See how the pattern shifted to the right, but the intervals didn't change?
Alright, that’s enough I think.
Let me really simplify it here - when you learn a major scale, even just one, you’ve learned a lot more than just that one scale. You’ve also picked up the relative minor scale, and believe it or not, the foundation for playing solos and chords all over the guitar neck.
The guitar neck can be an intimidating thing when you're trying to memorize notes and patterns, but millions of folks have done it, so you can, too.
Peace~
Dave
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