In order to discover the
Parallel Major/Minor
10
relationship, simply construct
major or minor from the same starting pitch.
Relative and Parallel Major/Minor
Relative
and
Parallel Major/Minor
will extend to our discussion of keys in
"Key Sense, Key Signatures, and The Cycle of Fifths"
.When labeling scales it is
customary to use upper case letter names for major and lower case letter names for
minor. When hand-drawn, a dash is placed above the letter c only. This should not
be used for other lower case letters. These relations commute from each form to the
other: one speaks of Major and its
relative
Minor, or Minor and its
relative
Major. The
same is true for the
parallel
relationship.
Figure 3.9
Relative and Parallel Scales: Major to Minor and Minor to Major
Audio 6
Relative and Parallel Scales
Just as the Major scale has labels for its constituent scale-steps, these labels are also
used for Minor scales. There is one notable exception: since the distance between
scale degree seven and the octave is a whole step, it does not possess the same
sensation of required resolution as its major counterpart (the
Leading Tone
).
Therefore it is labeled
Subtonic
.
Scale-Step Labels for Minor
Figure 3.10
Minor Scale-Step Labels
10. The relationship between
Major and Minor scales
wherein they share the same
starting pitch but different
pitch content.
Chapter 3 The Foundations Scale-Steps and Scales
3.2 Heptatonic Scales: The Major Scale, The Three Forms of the Minor Scale
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