Ahh!! I think i see what are saying now. Your saying if someone played the Minor shape, having started from the Major shape earlier up the neck, but is now playing the Minor shape relative to the original major and someone walked in, how would it sound different from simply starting in that spot as a minor shape right?
If so, then yeah, there is no difference at all of any kind assuming the person is playing a simple simple scale from low string to high string. It's the same notes.
The only different would come in when the person landed on the given root notes. E.G. if you start in a Major scale and move up the neck to the shape that is the Minor scale relative to that original major, then the root notes would be different than if you started playing as a Minor scale. However, unless the person hangs on the roots, the person listening would not no point of reference, so yeah, it would sound exactly the same.
If you start at say G Major, and play the through one octave. Then play G Minor through one octave, they sound different. But if you start at G Major and just play the various shapes up the neck without emphasizing the roots of the original G Major pattern, there would not be a difference at all. i Hope that makes sense?
I hope I haven't just made this less clear. In general, creating a sense of "Minor" comes from the relationship of notes to the root. The progression of whole and half steps is not the same when comparing the major and minor starting at the same root and playing through one octave. It's the root note and the relationship of the following notes to the root that gives the scales their character. So while the natural minor shape exists further up the neck, even if you start with A major, you would normally emphasize and resolve the licks by landing, now and then on the Root of A. Assuming you keep to the correct whole/half step pattern, it will continue to sound major all the way up the neck. But I see the source of your confusion. If you map the major and minor scales out over the neck, you can see that both patterns are there no matter which one you start with. So what matters in a solo, is defining the whole/half step patterns relative to your original key.
I think I may have just made things worse.
How about a nice diagram? From our handy scale generator. This is
A MAJOR (all over the neck)*Notice that the A Major Scale is right there in the middle starting at A and all the root notes are highlighted.*I've painted the MINOR scale blue so that it sticks out. F#Minor is the minor shape relative to A Major. Now I"ve marked the root notes of F# with a red bit. If you just played the F# Minor scale, starting on a a note and running it through one Octave. It would sound EXACTLY the same as it would if you started playing at the 5th Fret on the A root and played a Major through one octave as written. They are the same notes.*However!! If you lingered on the F# notes, at any point in time, and resolved your licks to any of the F#'s on the fretboard, as long as you kept playing only the notes that have circles around them (all the ones highlighted as A Major), what you played would start sounding like F# Minor, as you have shifted the root tone to F# and the relationship of the other notes to that root creates the characteristic sound of a given scale. Make any sense?
I memorized this scale chart when I first started learning to play lead. It helped a TON. Being able to see how all the shapes connect, helps tremendously. No longer was I guessing on what notes would be "in key" I knew where to go. I could write licks that started on an open low E and run them all the way up the neck ending on a high fret, high E.
The important thing to understand is that all you have to do is move this same pattern around a bit and you can play nearly anything. The Minor scale is one of the most often used scales in all of Rock/Metal/etc. So if you know the minor, and how it connects to the other shapes, all you need to know is what key you are playing in. Say A for example. Now start the A Minor Scale at A on the low E and see how the other scales fit around it. Now the entire fretboard is at your command and you won't ever hit a rude note, unless you want to.
The Major and Minor are used in LOTS of music So once you know the minor and it's relative shapes, you also know the major and it's relative shapes. It just becomes a matter of starting point/key.
I hope I have not confused things further.
Click to view attachmentTodd
I don't understand. How can you tell if it's major ir the relative minor if you play exactly the same notes in exactly the same way?
Thanks
Thanks Ben,
I'll check it out