Exploring Relative Scales in Major & Minor Keys: Music Theory Fundamentals | Berklee Online @Berklee_Online
Exploring Relative Scales in Major & Minor Keys: Music Theory Fundamentals | Berklee Online  @Berklee_Online
Uploaded June 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
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In this video from Berklee Online’s Music Theory Fundamentals course, instructor Amy Bellamy explains how relative scales work. Every major scale is derived from a system of whole and half steps: W (whole), W, H (half), W, W, W, H. In the key of C, those half steps are found between E and F (Mi and Fa in solfège) as well as B and C (Ti and Do in solfège). If we keep this same set of notes, but start on any note other than C, we will get a whole new scale that we could consider relative to the C major scale. For example, if we start on A, we will get an A minor scale, even though it has the same set of notes as C major. But now the order of whole and half steps have changed (it is now W, H, W, W, H, W, W). Therefore we call the A minor the relative minor of C major.

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ABOUT AMY BELLAMY:
Keyboardist Amy Bellamy received her Master’s of Music from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. After relocating to Boston, MA in 2002, she joined the Sam Kininger Band (of Soulive and Lettuce) and toured extensively throughout the US, culminating with their critically acclaimed 2010 album release entitled “Anthem” (BMG Japan). Bellamy and her husband, bassist Aaron Bellamy (The A-Beez) have led a well established 16-year Tuesday night residency at Boston’s beloved Wally’s Jazz Café. Over the last decade, Bellamy has performed with Chaka Khan (for President Bill Clinton) Terri Lyne Carrington, G Love and the Juice, The Nth Power, Oleta Adams, Res, Club D’elf, Cody Chesnutt, Martin Luther, Shing02, the Harlem Gospel Choir, Bruce Bartlett, Akrobatik, Mr Lif and many more. She has shared countless bills with major artists such as Parliament Funkadelic, Morris Day and the Time, Bootsy Collins, Chick Corea and many more. As a classical accompanist, Ms. Bellamy has appeared on multiple European tours with notable performances at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France and St Mark’s Basilica in Venice, Italy.

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Berklee Online | Online Course | Course Overview | Berklee College of Music | Music Theory | Amy Bellany | Scales | Major Scales | Minor Scales | Relative Scales | Whole Steps | Half Steps | Harmony | Modes | Chaka Khan | Terri Lyne Carrington | Oleta Adams | Akrobatik | Parliament Funkadelic | Bootsy Collins | Chick Corea
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Exploring Relative Scales in Major & Minor Keys: Music Theory Fundamentals | Berklee Online

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