Major Key

G is correct
A is wrong as it needs G#, not G
B is wrong as it needs A#, not A
C is correct
D is wrong as it needs C# not C
E is wrong as it needs D#, not D
F is correct but wrongly notated. A# MUST be called Bb in this case

In C major the second chord is D minor, not D major, because D major consists of notes D. F# and A. The note F# isn't in the key of C , so that chord doesn't belong.
D minor, on the other hand, consists of notes D F and A, all of which DO belong to the key of C major. So the second chord must be D minor, not major.

Ok thanks for that information! I understand!

And I know why I got all wrong except G and C... I make this 2 key on paper and I had 8 notes:

1- C
2- D
3- E
4- F
5- G
6- A
7- B
8- C

And when I was typing the others, I looked at the last interval, which was an half-tone... So I got all the others wrong by an half-tone. I now understand my errors, thanks again for the correction :wink:

Here is a table of all the major keys and their relative minors

Major Relative Key I ii iii IV V vi vii°
Key Minor Signature 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
----------------------------------------------------------------
C major A minor C D E F G A B
G major E minor # G A B C D E F#
D major B minor ## D E F# G A B C#
A major F# minor ### A B C# D E F# G#
E major C# minor #### E F# G# A B C# D#
B major G# minor ##### B C# D# E F# G# A#
F# major D# minor ###### F# G# A# B C# D# E#
F major D minor b F G A Bb C D E
Bb major G minor bb Bb C D Eb F G A
Eb major C minor bbb Eb F G Ab Bb C D
Ab major F minor bbbb Ab Bb C Db Eb F G
Db major Bb minor bbbbb Db Eb F Gb Ab Bb C
Gb major Eb minor bbbbbb Gb Ab Bb Cb Db Eb F
----------------------------------------------------------------

Ok thanks for the table!

But I still want understand something else.... What's the logic, or the link, between C Major and A Minor? And all the other Relative Minor related to a Major Key..

Ok thanks for the table!

But I still want understand something else.... What's the logic, or the link, between C Major and A Minor? And all the other Relative Minor related to a Major Key..

Relative minor has the same notes as the major scale it is the relative minor of. It is built using the intervals - W H W W H W W.

Yes. Just as C major has the notes:
C_D_EF_G_A_BC (note the spaces)
1_2_34_5_6_78

A natural minor scale has the notes:
A_BC_D_EF_G_A
1_2b3_4_5b6_b7_8

Same notes, gaps in the same place, but different arrangement. A is the pivotal point, the harmonic centre, instead of C.

In practice though, the notes F# and especially G# are likely to be used.

An E major chord (E-G#-B) or E7 (E-G#-B-D) gives a much stronger resolution back to Am than the the weakish Em-Am progression. This is called the harmonic minor scale.
A_BC_D_EF__G#A
1_2b3_4_5b6__78

If the F# note is incorporated instead of F, to give a smoother movement upwards, this is known as the melodic minor scale. It is very similar to the major scale, only differing in having a minor 3rd.
A_BC_D_E_F#_G#A
1_2b3_4_5_6_78

If I can toss a question in here: So, as hbriem pointed out the A Minor scale contains the same notes as the C Major scale but starts on the sixth note of the scale. Would that not also make it the Aeolian mode of the C Major scale?

And if so, would we call it C Aeolian (beacuse it's a mode of C) or A Aeolian (because it starts on A)?

And why does my head hurt after five minutes of scales and modes? :)

David

Hi David

That's a question that lots of beginners have and it's an important one. The thing to remember about any scale is that we give it two names, as in this example):

C (name of the note it starts on - tells us the tonal center) Major (gives us the sequence of steps and half-steps used to define the scale) Scale

So in your example, it would indeed be the A Aeolian because it starts on (and its tonal center is) A. The C Aeolian scale would be:

C, D, Eb, F, G, Ab, Bb, C

It starts on C, but uses the same series of steps and half-steps to get from one note to the next as all Aeolian scales. Check out the article on the Guitar Columns page called A La Modal, which you can find here:

https://www.guitarnoise.com/article.php?id=429

and hopefully that will help a bit.

Peace

Another question...

I tried (for the first time) to find by myself the chords from a song... I found the first one, which was an E, and found the other using the table that I made in my first message. So the song in they Key of E (I guessed the key with the first chord I heard....) had the chords: E, C#m, B and A.

I think I've just been lucky this time... So, do you have any tricks to find the key of the song you want to play?

Most people don't have perfect pitch. But relative pitch, being able to tell notes or chords based on a starting reference point, can often be developed with practice. If you're just hearing a song for the first time, you usually have to pick out a chord someplace in order to get you going.

While that may seem like guess work, it doesn't have to be. You can develop your ear so that you can hear only chords not specifically E,for instance, but rather whether or not it's a major or minor chord or a seventh or a diminished or whatever. Once you've got that, then you want to develop your ear so that you can pick out the voicing of a chord. Is the root note on the high string? If so, then it's probably E or G (if it's in open position) or an E-shaped barre chord. Hearing the third of the chord on the high string will indicate that it's a C or D chord. You'll often catch the little tricks that guitarists use when playing a particular chord. On the Beatles' Here Comes The Sun, for example, you can hear the typical guitar ornamentation that goes with a D chord, so even when you figure out that the songs in A, you also then realize that he must be playing with a capo on the seventh fret, where playing a D chord becomes an A chord.

It's easy to sit here and rattle off examples, but the truth of the matter is that I've spent a lot of time practicing my ear skills. And I'm nowhere near as good as many guitarists I know. The more you do it, the more you'll start to pick up on picking up music by ear. There are any number of intangible things, such as dealing with power chords or different tunings, that you will stumble hard over. That's just part of the learning process. Don't get discouraged. The more you do the easier it will seem. Stuff that seems hard to hear now will be easy. And there will always be music that poses a challenge.

If you're not afraid to make mistakes, you will always be in a position to learn from them.

Hope this helps and we're all looking forward to hearing about your progress.

Peace

Thanks for the response, David. I'd be lying if I said it made sense yet, but I'll print out the article you referenced and take it to bed tonight for a little bedtime reading. (No I don't have a life, actually!) As you say, someday I'll look back and wonder why I struggled to make sense of it!

Cheers,

David

I heard that the first chord you can hear in a song is often (not always) the the Key of the song... Is this true?

I heard that the first chord you can hear in a song is often (not always) the the Key of the song... Is this true?

True - and the last chord even more so.