![]() The relative major is always a minor third (3 half steps) above the minor. It's the same concept as with siblings: if Benny is Anna’s brother, then Anna is Benny’s sister. The relative major of F# minor is A major.The relative major of D minor is F major.The relative major of A minor is C major.If the relative minor of C major was A minor, then we say the relative major of A minor is C major. Relative major is essentially the inverse of relative minor. Anyway, we only need to remember: 251 and 451 are related via the magic of relative chords. Some scientists even believe the 251 progression was the original cadence that later developed into the classic 451 by replacing the first minor chord with its relative major (see next section)! This theory sounds convincing, because 251 not only has the functional progression of pre-dominant to dominant to tonic, but also has a sequence of falling fifths in the bass - one of the strongest forces in music theory. A 251 progression is simply a full authentic cadence of 451 with the subdominant being replaced by its relative minor chord. The famous 251 progression can also be explained with relative keys. Try it for a few songs and replace the final cadential chord with its relative minor chord. It creates a welcomed surprise without sounding too jarring. This will sound somewhat surprising yet still satisfying. One such trick is to deceptively resolve a major cadence to the relative minor chord. This is the basis of many tricks in music theory. It almost always works, because the function of the chord didn’t change! Only its flavor is slightly altered. Try it and replace a major chord with its relative minor in any song. a tonic function in C major or a pre-dominant function in G major). Both C major and A minor play the same "harmonic function" (e.g. They're so closely related that in functional harmony, a relative minor chord can take the place its relative major chord. From this it's easy to understand how closely related relative chords are. If we extend these triads to four notes, they even have three notes in common: C, E and G. With a C major chord and an A minor chord side by side, we immediately see that they both share two of their three notes: C and E. It's worth looking at relative chords a little closer. That means the A minor chord is included in the key of C major (it's the chord on the sixth scale degree) and the C major chord is included in the key of A minor (it's the chord on the third scale degree). If we look at relative minor as a chord (as opposed to a whole key), we can see that both the C major chord and the A minor chord belong to the other chord’s key. In the circle of fifths, which orders all keys by their accidentals, C major and A minor actually share the same spot! And so do all other major and their relative minor keys. The only difference between a major key and its relative minor key is the root: The root of C major is C, while the root of A minor is A. If you answered that they have the same accidentals or the same scale material, you were correct! The note material of C major is the same as the note material of A minor (i.e. ![]() So let me ask the question: what do the major key and its relative minor have in common? Though this is easy to remember, it doesn't yet explain, what relative minor is and why we need it. You can already see a pattern here: The relative minor is always a minor third (or 3 half steps) below the major.
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