Quote:
Originally Posted by hb
I'm trying to grasp the circle of fifths and it's relationship to friendly chords but I can't seem to grasp one thing.....How can one chord (or should I say "scale") like the the 'C' , have exactly the same notes as the 'A minor"? I know a C scale starts on a C and an A scale starts on the A but in between they're the same. How can this be?
thanks,
hb
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It's a coincidence (kind of)
C major is C D E F G A B C
A minor is A B C D E F G A
All major scales have an order of
Tones and
Semitones (whole steps and half steps) as TTSTTTS
All natural minor scales have the order TSTTSTT
And it just so happens that if you start the major one on C and the minor one on A, they come out with the same notes. But they sound very different because of the different order of tones and semitones. One sounds bright and majorish, the other sounds darker and minorish. The fact that they have the same notes gives them the name
relative major and
relative minor of each other.
Edit: It's not really a coincidence as all diatonic scales originally came from the same seven notes ABCDEFG and there are only so many ways you can arrange them, so of course many will have the same notes but start on different places.