[MUSIC] We have spent the last three lectures talking about major scales, keys and key signatures with which I hope you are getting comfortable reading and writing. You know that the major scale is diatonic. That is, it has the interval arrangement whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step or using moveable Do, So, Fa syllables, the notes Do through Ti. Minor scales are also diatonic with the same collection of five whole steps and two half steps, but they now start in the middle of the three whole steps. One way to think of it, using moveable Do syllables, is starting the diatonic set on La. The whole steps and half steps are still between the same syllables, Mi and Fa and Ti and Do, but now the scale degrees have changed. In major, the half steps fall between the scale degrees 3 and 4 and 7 and 8. In Minor, on the other hand, Ti is scale degree 2, so the first half step is between 2 and 3. Mi is scale degree 5, so the second half step is between 5 and 6. [SOUND] So here's 1, 2, 3, La, Ti, Do, Re, Mi. Here's the half step, Mi, Fa, So, La. The whole step and half step pattern in minor therefore, is whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step. Let's construct a few minor scales the hard way using this interval pattern. Let's try F# minor. F# to G# is a whole step. G# to A is a half step. A to B is a whole step. B to C# is a whole step. C# to D is a half step. D to E is a whole step. And E to F# is a whole step. So F sharp minor has three sharps, F#, C#, and G#, just like A major. Let's do a flat key, C minor. C to D is a whole step. D to E flat is the first half step. E flat to F and F to G are whole steps. G to A flat is the second half step. The final whole steps are A flat to B flat and B flat to C. So C-minor has three flats, B flat, E flat and A flat, the same as E flat major. Let's compare C major to C minor. Notice that four of seven notes are the same. Namely, scale degrees 1, 2, 4, and 5. The differences come with scale degrees 3, 6, and 7, which are lowered in minor. So here's C major, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 1. And here's C minor. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 1. This relationship between a major scale and the minor scale that starts on the same note, but has lowered 3, 6, and 7 is called parallel major and minor. C minor is the parallel minor to C major. Parallel minor scales start on the same note as the major scale, but have lowered 3, 6, and 7. Let's try it with F major and minor. Here's F major. F major sounds like this. [MUSIC] To create its parallel minor, F minor, we lower 3, 6 and 7. A became A flat, D became D flat and E became E Flat. F minor sounds like this. [MUSIC] Let's do one more. Write the the parallel minor to B major. In B major, the last sharp is A#, down a half step from the tonic note B. So the sharps in the key are F, C, G, D, and A#, five sharps. Lowering 3, 6, and 7 gives us B minor. Notice that B minor has two sharps, F# and C#. This is the same key signature as D major. We have now looked at three minor scales, F#, which had the sharp notes as A major. C minor, which has the same flat notes as E flat major. And B minor, which has has the same sharp notes as D major. Have you noticed the pattern? Every minor scale has the same key signature as the major scale that starts on its third scale degree. Using La as the tonic, this makes sense. The third scale degree is Do, which is the tonic note of a major scale. As we can see here, a minor scale shares all the same diatonic notes as the major scale that starts on its third scale degree. From the perspective of the major scale, the minor scale that shares all the same notes starts on its sixth scale degree, or La. In addition to parallel major and minor, that is scales with the same tonic, we also have the relationship between a minor and the major scale that uses exactly the same diatonic notes but with a different tonic. In other words the major and minor scales that have the same key signature. We call these scales relative major and minor. C minor is the relative minor to E flat major. f# minor is the relative minor to A major. B minor is the relative minor to D major. The tonic of the minor key is a third, two letters that is, below that of the major key. By the way, we often use lower case letters for the tonic of minor keys. We now have two important relationships, parallel major and minor in which the tonics are the same, but the third, sixth, and seventh notes are different; which means the key signature is different. And relative major and minor, in which the tonics are different, but the key signatures are the same. Both relationships are very important to know. Let's try going from major to minor. What is the relative minor of D flat major? We know that the relative minor tonic is two letters below the major tonic D, C, B. So it must be some kind of B. We know that D flat major has five flats B, E, A, D and G which includes B flat. So the relative minor of D flat major is B flat minor. They have the same key signature. Going the other way, what is the relative major of G# minor? Going up two letters, G, A, B, we know it's some kind of B. It can't be B flat major since that's flat. So the relative major to G# minor is B major, they have the same key signature. In this lecture, we talked about the two kinds of relationships between major and minor. Parallel Minor in which four of seven notes are the same as the major key with lower three, six and seven and thus a different key signature. And Relative Minor in which the starting notes differ from the major key, but the key signature is the same. In the next lecture, we'll review these relationships, practice writing more minor scales and key signatures, and then we'll talk about common changes to the minor scale, which result in three possible forms of minor.
