Guitar Lesson Seven - Theory
Part II:
Once you are getting comfortable with the relationship between the major scale and the relative minor scale, you need to start working with the minor scale on its own. In order to do this, we need to analyze the minor scale and see what intervals it is made of.
So far, we know that the minor scale is built by starting and stopping on the 6th note of the major scale. If we start with the C major scale (C D E F G A B C), we get A minor (A B C D E F G A) as the relative minor scale.
The next step is to compare the A minor scale to the A major scale to see how the intervals line up. This is an important step to understand. The minor scale must be compared to the major scale that starts on the same root note in order to determine the interval structure of the minor scale.
When it comes to comparing intervals you have to match up the root notes.
Remember that the major scale gives us the intervals: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.
The A major scale is spelled: A B C# D E F# G#
Let's compare the two scales and see what we get:
A major: A B C# D E F# G# A Intervals: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 A minor: A B C D E F G A Intervals: 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 8
By comparing the A minor scale to the A major scale, we can see that the minor scale has a flattened 3, 6 and 7.
Recall that in lesson 6, I told you that the most commonly used minor scale was built from the intervals: 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 8. In this lesson, we have arrived at the same minor scale from a different direction.
Now, before we continue, you need to understand that regardless of which key we are in, the relative minor scale will have the same interval structure.
In other words, if we start with the G major scale (G A B C D E F# G), the relative minor would start on E (E F# G A B C D E). If we compare the E minor scale to the E major scale (E F# G# A B C# D E), we get the same interval structure as before: 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 8.
Go through the relative minor chart that you created and compare each minor scale to the major scale starting on the same root as the minor. It's not enough to take my word for it. You need to verify this stuff for yourself.
This lesson is divided into five parts:
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