Relative key

relationship between major and minor musical scales

When a piece of music is in a major key, the relative minor means the minor key which has the same key signature. It can be found by taking the sixth note of the first scale and playing a minor scale starting on that note. For example: in C major the sixth note is an A. Therefore, A minor is the relative minor of C major (C major and A minor share the same key signature: no sharps or flats).C major is called the relative major of A minor.

A complete list of relative minor/major pairs in order of the circle of fifths is:

Key signatureMajor keyMinor key
B, E, A, D, G, C, FC flat majorA flat minor
B, E, A, D, G, CG flat majorE flat minor
B, E, A, D, GD flat majorB flat minor
B, E, A, DA flat majorF minor
B, E, AE flat majorC minor
B, EB flat majorG minor
BF majorD minor
C majorA minor
FG majorE minor
F, CD majorB minor
F, C, GA majorF sharp minor
F, C, G, DE majorC sharp minor
F, C, G, D, AB majorG sharp minor
F, C, G, D, A, EF sharp majorD sharp minor
F, C, G, D, A, E, BC sharp majorA sharp minor