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At the risk of all of you saying “Tell us something we didn’t know”, I want to share a little lightbulb moment.
Maybe it’s because I don’t work with chord progressions enough but when I want to think of the chords within a key I usually resort to the old formula, M m m M M m diminished, often writing it out.Here’s the epiphany. It has just occured to me that every key contains a major 1, 4, 5 AND a minor 1, 4, 5. You think I would know this having stared at a Circle of Fifth’s for years but I’ve never heard it described this way.
Here’s another lightbulb. Every key has relative major and minor notes. I usually know those by experience but if you don’t it’s the placement of the index and pinky fingers in box 1 minor pentatonic on the 6th string. The relative minor note is the 1 of the minor 1, 4, 5 of the key. I’m pretty used to recalling 1, 4, 5’s for most keys.
eg. key of C 1,4,5 is C, F, G relative minor is A, minor 1, 4, 5 is Am, Dm, Em = family of chords for C major.
eg. key of A 1,4,5 is A,D, E relative minor is F#, minor 1,4,5 is F#m, B, C#m.Hope that helps someone. I figure if I never looked at it that way there are probably others in the same boat.
John
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Relative to the 1st finger and pinky: there is what’s called the “First finger Pinky Rule” the pattern start with 1st finger is the minor pattern while the pinky starts the major pattern;
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“Here’s the epiphany. It has just occurred to me that every key contains a major 1, 4, 5 AND a minor 1, 4, 5. You think I would know this having stared at a Circle of Fifth’s for years but I’ve never heard it described this way.”
Yep, that’s the beauty of thinking it all through in a theory sort of way. It makes everything more clear and agreeable.
I think of it more in a modal way, because it’s just a different mode of the major scale (Aeolian). So notes/chords wise the function of the chords and notes change. I don’t like how the powers that be say it’s the key of Am when in fact it’s really just the notes of the C major scale used in a different mode (A Aeolian). If you were to look at a chart of music in the key of Am there are no accidentals listed in the key signature. That tells me it’s really in the key of C major as far as the set of notes used. The function of those notes/chords, however, are A Aeolian which is tonally centered with that A minor sound.
The only reason why they say it’s in the key of Am, is that’s just the way they have been doing it for hundreds of years and they don’t want to change the way keys are defined. But clearly there are only 12 possible notes that could ever be played, so why create more than 12 keys and just add a note on the chart that says what the tonal center or mode is? That makes more sense to my brain at least. I guess we have to be able to look at it both ways just to communicate with each other effectively.
It’s easy to confuse key signature and the mythical key of the song. The word key itself can be understood more like the mode of the key signature. To me, I want to know the key signature and what mode we are in based on the chord progression structure. That’s all I need to know most of the time.
The complication with minor keys comes from the fact that there are multiple different minor scales unlike the major scales. There is the harmonic, melodic, and natural minor scales. Then there all those other funky scales that are used in other styles of music to further complicate it. It gives the illusion that there are many more than 12 different keys, when really it’s just one of 12 key signatures played in one of the seven different modes and sometimes using alternate scales in the melodies.
Sorry for going down the theory rabbit hole, but I couldn’t resist.
Go slow and practice correct technique, and your abilities will dramatically improve.
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I love the theory rabbit hole, Michael, although it’s not generally popular on AM. Most here prefer it in small doses the way Brian infuses it.
I agree it’s simpler to think of only 12 keys but when I play minor I want to think to think in terms of the i minor tonic root, not the parent key. From there, I do think of the modal function of each chord, especially when diatonic chords outside the i, iv, v are brought in, and that does relate back to the parent major.
Michael, I had sent you a friend request and private message a few days back.
John
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Yes I did know this but maybe my brain is wired differently as, to me, the Circle of Fifths is like one of those puzzles Indiana Jones is famous for decrypting!
I think I first picked it up from an online instructor who specialised in Neo soul, a lot of which is in a minor key. He described everything in respect of the respective Major key. It seemed a logical approach and I went down the rabbit hole that Michael described above ie extending the concept to encompass thinking about all modes in terms of the Major key they’re derived from.
For me It helped join the conceptual theory dots and placed another piece of the puzzle into the picture but doesn’t really help when I’m actually playing. I know I’m playing C major when I’m playing Am and the chords are the same family, but I still find it easier to think about Am as an A major scale with a couple of notes shifted. Similarly, A Dorian as A minor with a raised 6th etc etc. That seems to fit better when hingeing things on playing in CAGED containers.
For instance if I was playing in A minor and playing a Dm in (say) the region of the CAGED A shape container, I don’t have to try and figure out what the C major scale looks like there. I just think about A minor or maybe D minor pentatonic and the triad options that live there.
There are times when it’s useful to know. In slow (not playing) time when I’m thinking of chords for a progression that might fit a particular song in a particular key. If I know it’s in A minor then I’ll probably think about the C Major chord family but starting at chord 6. Or if its A dorian, C Major starting at 2.
Its also very useful to know that if a major key progression includes the relative minor you can just continue to play the major key scale over it and it will sound all minoresque, making it look like you know what your doing 😉
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Very interesting indeed. As you say, I knew that already, but just never bothered to see the Zen-like beauty of it all.
Sunjamr Steve
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