September

Music Theory: Relative Majors and Minors

Posted In: Music Theory, Uncategorized by claybutlermusic

Once again, we’re expanding the series, “10 Things Every Musician Should Know“. Today, we’re going to deal with Relative Majors and Minors.

Every Major key has a relative minor key. This means that they share the same key signature, which, in turn means that the same accidentals are used to build the keys. There are a couple of ways to determine the relative minor of a major key (or chord). In our last post, “Datonic Triads: Chords by Key“, I mentioned that the relative minor of a major scale was found by using the 6th note in the scale as the starting note. So, the sixth note of the C major scale is “A”, therefore its relative minor is A Minor.

The second way to find the relative minor is to start at the first note in the scale and go down a minor third. A minor third consists of a half step, followed by a whole step. So, for C Major, we start on C, go down a half step to B, then a whole step to A. It just so happens that this process also leads you to the 6th scale degree.

Now that we know how to find the relative minor for each key/chord, here’s a list so you can commit them to memory:

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

Tune in next time, when we go modal. Until then, here’s that handy tool again to help with finding relative minors, in case you missed it.

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September

Music Theory: Accidentals are No Accident

Posted In: Music Theory, Uncategorized by claybutlermusic

Yesterday’s post dealt with building a scale using whole steps and half steps, which is part of the series “10 Things that Every Musician Should Know”. Today, we’re going to take the concept one step further by telling what role accidentals, or sharps/flats, play in scale building.

We’ve already established that scales are built by using a specific pattern of whole steps and half steps, and that C Major (or it’s relative A minor) is the only one that can get away with using only white keys. The rest have to alter certain notes in order to conform to that pattern. If the note spacing is too wide (a whole step when we need a half step), we reduce it by making the next note a flatted note. If the note spacing is not wide enough (a half step when we need a whole step), then we sharp the next note. Here’s an example below.

If we move from C to D on the piano to start a scale here’s what we end up with:

D (whole) E (HALF) F (WHOLE) G (whole) A (whole) B (HALF) C (WHOLE) D

As we can see from the ones in bold, this pattern does not make a major scale. (Actually it’s the Dorian mode, which we’ll cover in a later post). So, we need to use accidentals, in this case # (sharp) in order to conform the scale to the correct pattern of whole steps and half steps. Here’s the corrected pattern:

D (whole) E (whole) F# (half) G (whole) A (whole) B (whole) C# (half) D

We now have a true major scale. Here’s an example using flats. Since there’s no easy way to denote a flat other than the lowercase “b”, I’m going to stick with spelling it out.

Let’s try an E flat scale. The accidentals are in bold.

E flat (whole) F (whole) G (half) A flat (whole) B flat (whole) C (whole) D (half) E flat

So, in essence, sharps and flats exist for the sole purpose of conforming scales to the correct pattern. Once we understand this, the mystique of the accidental subsides and we have a very functional tool for making and understanding music.

ACCIDENTALS BY KEY

If you’ve ever looked at a piece of music and wondered what the groups of sharps or flats are at the beginning of each line, here’s the answer: that’s the Key Signature. This simply tells us which sharps or flats are needed to conform that scale to the correct pattern of whole steps and half steps. They also follow a pattern called the “Circle of Fifths” (here’s a great Circle of Fifths tool to help you with keys and key signatures).

Below is a list of major keys and their key signatures using the circle of fifths pattern. It’s a good idea to commit these to memory, as you’ll eventually have to use this knowledge on the fly at a gig or in a recording session.

C = No sharps/flats
G = 1 Sharp. Accidentals Present = F#
D = 2 Sharps. Accidentals Present = F#, C#
A = 3 Sharps. Accidentals Present = F#, C#, G#
E = 4 Sharps. Accidentals Present = F#, C#, G#, D#
B = 5 Sharps. Accidentals Present = F#, C#, G#, D#, A#
F# = 6 Sharps. Accidentals Present = F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#
C# = 7 Sharps. Accidentals Present = F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#, B#

Now for the Flats (using the dreaded “lowercase b” to save space).

C = No sharps/flats
F = 1 flat. Accidentals Present = Bb
Bb = 2 flats. Accidentals Present = Bb, Eb
Eb = 3 flats. Accidentals Present = Bb, Eb, Ab
Ab = 4 flats. Accidentals Present = Bb, Eb, Ab, Db
Db = 5 flats. Accidentals Present = Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb
Gb = 6 flats. Accidentals Present = Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb
Cb = 7 flats. Accidentals Present = Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb, Fb

Commit these to memory. You’ll thank me later. Here’s a handy tool that will assist you with key signatures. Stay tuned to learn which chords are present in each key!

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