What are relative major and minor keys, and how can you use their shared notes to create chord progressions?

Relative Major and Minor Keys: Understanding Related Chords

Major and minor keys are often associated with different musical characters, but a major key and its relative minor share exactly the same set of notes. This relationship gives you a simple way to create new melodies and chord progressions without introducing an entirely new collection of pitches.

What are relative keys?

C major and A minor are a pair of relative keys.

The C major scale contains:

C – D – E – F – G – A – B

The natural A minor scale contains:

A – B – C – D – E – F – G

Both scales use the same seven notes. The difference is which note functions as the tonal centre: C in C major and A in A minor.

Another example is G major and E minor:

• G major: G – A – B – C – D – E – F♯
• E natural minor: E – F♯ – G – A – B – C – D

These scales also share the same notes, but their tonal centres differ.

How to find a relative minor key

A quick way to find the relative minor of a major key is to move down three semitones from the major key's tonic.

For example:

• C down three semitones gives A: C major and A minor.
• G down three semitones gives E: G major and E minor.
• F down three semitones gives D: F major and D minor.

You can also find the relative major by moving up three semitones from the tonic of a minor key. For example, A minor's relative major is C major.

This is a useful shortcut, but remember that sharing notes does not make two keys identical in musical effect. The melody, bass, harmony, and phrase endings help establish which note sounds like the tonal centre.

Relative major and minor chords

The relationship also appears in triads. Consider these pairs:

• C major: C – E – G
• A minor: A – C – E

The two chords share the notes C and E. Their remaining notes, G and A, differ.

Another pair is:

• F major: F – A – C
• D minor: D – F – A

These chords share F and A.

And finally:

• G major: G – B – D
• E minor: E – G – B

These chords share G and B.

These pairs are sometimes described as related or relative chords. They are useful when you want to change the colour of a progression while retaining some of its notes.

Using relative chords in a progression

Try playing this simple progression:

C major → A minor → F major → G major

In note names:

C–E–G → A–C–E → F–A–C → G–B–D

Now try replacing one or more chords with their relative minor partners:

A minor → A minor → D minor → E minor

Or experiment with just one substitution:

C major → A minor → F major → G major

becomes:

A minor → A minor → F major → G major

These are experiments rather than strict rules. A relative chord shares notes with its major counterpart, but replacing one chord with another can change the harmony's function and the way the progression feels. Listen to the result rather than assuming that every substitution will have the same effect.

A practical experiment for synthesizers

Choose a short melody in C major. Keep the melody's notes unchanged, and play different chord progressions beneath it.

1. Start with C major, F major, and G major.
2. Try replacing C major with A minor.
3. Try replacing F major with D minor.
4. Try replacing G major with E minor.
5. Compare how the same melody feels over each progression.

You can do this with a keyboard, a DAW piano roll, or a modular patch that combines a sequencer with a chord generator or quantizer.

For a more exploratory approach, keep the melody running while you switch between related chords. Try different inversions and octave ranges, and notice which notes remain common between successive chords. These shared tones can help a progression sound connected even when its harmonic character changes.

From related chords to cadences

Relative chords provide an accessible starting point for experimenting with harmony. Another essential tool is the cadence: a progression built around the tonic, subdominant, and dominant chords of a key.

Learning how these chords work together will give you a framework for building progressions, and then you can experiment with inversions and relative-chord substitutions to make them your own.

Just click here and read more about this topic, and download presets and example files in “Signal Path monthly”.