This Beginner's Guide to Guitar Soloing™ is brought to you by the following sponsors: JoeGuitar.com Professional Music Products 99dollarGuitars.com Guitars, Effects, Basses, even Keyboards. Mostly under $99!   Major and Relative Minor Scales ...Continued Why is the relative minor scale called the relative minor scale? As stated in the beginning of this lesson, every major scale has a relative minor scale. One way to look at it is to simply count up to the sixth note in a major scale and play the next seven notes from there. For example, to find the relative minor scale to C major, first, count up to the sixth degree. The sixth note in C major is A. Playing the C scale from A is A Relative Minor. See below... C major:   C D E F G A B           A minor:   1 2 3 4 5 A B C D E F G By playing the C scale from A, the series of whole steps and half steps changes from: W W H W W W H (major) to W H W W W H W which is minor. In this way, we can see that the A minor scale relates to C major. Understanding the major/relative minor scale relationship is important because these kinds of relationships occur throughout many aspects of music. As our study of music deepends, we'll draw on these scales frequently. The same relationship occurs for all twelve major scales (keys). On a final note, the relative minor scale is sometimes referred to as natural minor and also as the aeolian mode. Don't be confused by these other names. They simply refer to the same scale.