hello again! so we've been beating our major and minor scales to death, hoping to somehow use them well enough to create melodies, solos, and in the end, wonderful music for all to behold.
now i'd like to point out something interesting about these two scales. let's have a look at them...
at first, these both look like ordinary run of the mill major and minor scales - and they are. however, you might have noticed that i took two scales from two different keys.
...or did i?
let's take a second look at the scales, this time with the notes labeled...
if you look closely, you'll notice that both of these scales contain the same notes, they just use different starting points in the scale. therefore, we can say that these two scales are related. now take notice of where the two scales intersect with each other, and you'll see that the relative minor scale starts off the 6th degree of the major scale (A), and the relative major scale starts off the 3rd degree of the minor scale (C).
no matter what key you're in, this relationship never changes.
now i bet you're thinking, so what? what good does this do me? well, for starters, if you have to play an improvised solo in the key of, say, B minor, not only can you use B minor, but you can also use D major, which in turn now doubles the amount of space you occupy on the fretboard, and gives you double the options. that's a very powerful thing. how often do we get bored with scale shapes, and annoyed that we can't find ways to 'break out of the box' - this is one way to do so!
it's important to be able to call up your relative majors and minors in any key in realtime - if you are proficient in both of these scales, it's a technique that will make you sound more interesting and sophisticated almost instantly. add in your superimposed pentatonics (to be discussed later), and now all of a sudden you can cover the entire neck with just three simple scales that most guitar players are very proficient in!
practice!
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