Guitar Lessons – Relative Minor Chords Made Easy

If you’re fairly new to playing guitar then you may have heard the term “relative minor” somewhere along the way and wondered, “what the heck is that?” The relative minor of a chord or scale is not all that complicated, and it’s a useful piece of information that you will need as you progress with your guitar lessons.

Today we’ll discuss not only “what” a relative minor means, but also “how” to easily figure out the relative minor of any chord or scale. First off, a brief explanation. The are occurrences in music when the notes of a “major” scale are the same as the notes in a “minor” scale. The only thing that changes is the “root” notes of the two scales. But they are otherwise, identical.

When this takes place, the minor scale is known as the “relative minor” of the major scale, because they are closely related by containing the same notes. For example, in looking at the “C” major scale the notes would be as follows:

C D E F G A B C

The relative minor of the C major scale is “A” minor. The notes of the A minor scale are as follows:

A B C D E F G A

Notice that the notes of the two scales are exactly the same. Only the order of the notes has changed because the A minor scale starts with the root note of “A”.

We use the “C” major scale as an example because it’s easy to discuss due to the fact that there are no sharps or flats in the scale. However, the same principle can be applied to any scale on the guitar. An understanding of the relationship between the notes in a major scale and the notes in its relative minor is helpful as we proceed into working with relative minor “chords”.

The relative minor chord of any major chord is often referred to as the “6 minor”. In a band or studio situation you may hear someone discussing a chord progression and instruct everyone to “play the six minor”. What they are saying is to play the chord that is the relative minor chord of the key the song is being played in. This is much easier to figure out than it may seem. For example, again using the “C” major scale with the following notes:

C D E F G A B C

If the song is in the key of “C” and you wanted to play the relative minor “chord” of C, then using the above example, you would simply count to the 6th step of the major scale.

Starting on “C”, the 6th step of the scale is “A”. The “A” is the root, so the relative minor chord of a C major chord is “A” minor.

Although it’s good, using this method would require memorizing all the notes in all the scales, which would obviously be an enormous task! If you have followed Adult Guitar Lessons, or any number of these articles, you’ll know that I am a firm believer in taking the easiest route possible, so here are a couple of easy ways to quickly locate it in any key, anywhere on the guitar.

Method 1 – Easy

Using the above example, if you know the notes of the major scale “pattern”, you can start with the root note, and play the major scale until you reach the 6th step in the scale. This 6th step is the root note of the relative minor to the major chord that you started with.

Method 2 – Super Easy

Start with the root note of any major chord and play that note on the 6th string of your guitar. From there, count down 3 frets. The note you land on is the root note for the relative minor chord.

Try this with the “C” major chord. The root note (“C”) on the 6th string is played at the 8th fret. Starting there and counting down 3 frets, you wind up on the 5th fret, which is an “A” note. This tells you that the relative minor chord of C is “A” minor.

Try it now with the “G” major chord. The root note (“G”) on the 6th string is played on the 3rd fret. From there, count down 3 frets and you wind up on the open 6th string, which of course, is the “E” note. So now you know that the relative minor chord of a G major is E minor.

I love shortcuts and this “super easy” method to identify the relative minor chord of any major chord is one that I have used for many years. I hope it serves you as well as it has served me. Enjoy!