A Minor Question About, Major Chords Options

[edgor67]

Professor Andy,

I’m not that active on the forum however, looking over the preceding entries I see that I may be in “tune” (oh no) with other GMCers. Correct me if I’m wrong but I realized that if I riff an A minor scale around the C Major chord it works musically. This is what the relative minor theory is all about correct (Ionian mode of course)? Now in a I, IV, V chord progression in the key of C Maj is it good to just use the Am scale to riff around all the chords or could one use Am for the tonic ©, Dm for the IV(F), and Em for the V (G)? Learning the guitar is a life long journey. I think it will keep me busy for awhile. It will never end unless I end but the music goes on.

ROCK ON! edgor

[Andrew Cockburn]

Hi there

Ok, you are right, a scale of Am will work over a C major progression, but thinking of it that way may be confusing. You have discovered modes - and A is the relative Aeolian of C, which is why it fits. But if you play Am scale over a C major chord, you are not really doing anything modal, as the notes all belong in the C major scale. In fact, a better way to think of it is that the first box of the Aminor scale is identical to the 6th box of the A Major scale (there is a deeper mode related explanation for this, but for now, think of it this way). So, you see you are really playing Cmajor, just using a different box.

Now regarding your second question - this also applies to the other chords you have identified as relative minors. Again, don't try and equate majors and their relative minors as the same thing in quite this way, look at them as higher (6th) boxes of the major scale.

As and when you want to really start with realtive minors, you need to change the underlying chords to match. An Am scale over a C chord is really just a different C major box, but if you change the underlying chord to A minor, that same scale magically becomes an A minor scale.

[edgor67]

Hmmm, HEAVY! I'll mull this over. So minor scale with minor chords correct?

Professor Andy,

I’m not that active on the forum however, looking over the preceding entries I see that I may be in “tune” (oh no) with other GMCers. Correct me if I’m wrong but I realized that if I riff an A minor scale around the C Major chord it works musically. This is what the relative minor theory is all about correct (Ionian mode of course)? Now in a I, IV, V chord progression in the key of C Maj is it good to just use the Am scale to riff around all the chords or could one use Am for the tonic ©, Dm for the IV(F), and Em for the V (G)? Learning the guitar is a life long journey. I think it will keep me busy for awhile. It will never end unless I end but the music goes on.

ROCK ON! edgor

[Andrew Cockburn]

Hmmm, HEAVY! I'll mull this over. So minor scale with minor chords correct?

Almost but not quite - each scale has a set of characteristic chords that goes with it, major and minor. Above I am talking specifically about matching the root notes and root chords that's all. If you check my Chords for Scales lesson you will see how we build other chords out of scales.