From Zero to Mozart
Stage 4Scales & musicianshipLesson 12 of 70 · Ear & musicianship

Relative and parallel

A major key and a minor key can be linked in two different ways, and they're easy to mix up. One shares the notes; the other shares the home.

Relative — same key signature, different home

Relative keys use the same seven notes (the same key signature) but treat a different one as home. G major and E minor are relatives: both have one sharp, F♯.

72 bpm
G major — home is G.
72 bpm
The exact same seven notes, started from E — now it's E minor. Nothing changed but which note feels like home. Play them back to back and hear the second one turn.

To find a major key's relative minor: go down a minor 3rd (three half steps) from the tonic — or, same thing, start on the 6th degree. G major's 6th is E → E minor. D major's 6th is B → B minor. C major's 6th is A → A minor.

Going the other way — a minor key's relative major is up a minor 3rd, on the 3rd degree: E minor → G major; A minor → C major.

Parallel — same home, different key signature

Parallel keys share the tonic but not the signature. G major and G minor both call G home — but G minor lowers the 3rd, 6th and 7th (B→B♭, E→E♭, F♯→F♮), which works out to a key signature of two flats instead of one sharp.

72 bpm
G natural minor — same starting note as G major, but three notes have dropped: B♭, E♭, F♮. Same home, different colour. This is 'the sun going behind a cloud'.

Composers switch between parallel major and minor mid-piece for exactly that effect — a sudden shift of light without leaving home.

How to tell a major key from its relative minor

One sharp on the page is G major or E minor. To decide:

  • Where does it rest? Does the tune keep landing on G, or on E?
  • Is there a D♯ floating around? E minor's leading tone is D♯, and it's not in the key signature — it's added as an accidental every time it's wanted. A tune in "one sharp" that's peppered with D♯ accidentals is almost certainly in E minor.

Try it

Relative and parallel

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Try

Play a one-octave G major scale. Then, without changing a single finger, play the same string of notes but start and end on E (E F♯ G A B C D E). Same hand, same notes — but now you're in E minor, and your ear knows it. That's the relative relationship, felt.

The usual mistake

Muddling the two words. Remember it by what each one keeps: relative keys keep the notes (so you can slip between them without an accidental), parallel keys keep the home (so the tonic stays put while the mood flips). And relatives do not sound the same — they share a note collection, but a different note has gravity, and that changes everything.