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Relative major and minor The harmonic scale of A minor shares all but one note with the scale of C major, as can be seen in the above example (the natural minor shares all the same notes, see minor scales for more about different types of minor scale). Because these two keys are so closely related (and it is therefore easy to modulate from one to the other) A minor is therefore said to be the relative minor of C major. The relative minor of any major key is a minor third below, as shown in the following table.
The close relationship between A minor and C major is highlighted if you imagine changing the G# (sharpened leading note of A minor) in the second bar to a G natural. The third chord of the example would then be an E minor rather than an E major chord, and the second bar would sound like ii - vi in C major instead of V-i in A minor. close |