2019-07-01_Computer_Music

Stepbystep Relativeversusparallelexplained

Whentalkingaboutscalesandkeys,the

terms‘relative’and‘parallel’cropupa lot,

andareoftenmistakenforeachother.Sothis

month,we’llstraightenoutthisconfusiona

littlewithsomecleardefinitions,coupled

withanexampleortwooftheirusage.

Ina nutshell,relativescalesarea pairof

scales,onemajorandoneminor,thatshareall

thesamenotes,whereasparallelscalesaretwo

scales,onemajorandoneminor,thatsharethe

samerootnote.Similarly,relativeandparallel

keysarejustbasedonrelativeandparallel

scalesrespectively.That’sallwellandgood,but

whatcanwedowiththisinfo?

Relativekeyscanbeusedtoprovidean

emotionalshiftfordifferentsectionsofa song.

Forexample,a verseina minorkeyswitchingto

a chorusinitsrelativemajorkeyactually

changeskeysosubtlythatmostwon’trealise.

Asthekeysarerelativeanduseallthesame

diatonicnotesandchords,they’llsoundsimilar

despitethechangeofmood,eventhough the

tonalcentrehasshifted.

Parallelkeyscomeinusefulwhenyouwant

toexploreoutsideofa diatonicsetofchords –

theseventriadsinanymajororminorkey.

Chordsfromthediatonicsetofa parallelkey are

knownas‘borrowed’chords,andtheyadd

varietytoyourpaletteofchords,offeringmore

optionswhenpiecingtogethera progression.

Let’skickthingsoffintraditional

fashionwiththeC majorscale.Seven

notes,fromC toB,playedonthewhite

keysofthepianokeyboard,CDE F GAB.

It’sthepatternofintervalsbetweenthe

n o t e s( T-T- S -T-T-T- S ,whereT standsforTone

andS standsforSemitone)thatmakeit a

majorscale.

1

Nowlet’splaythesamesequenceof

sevennotes,butstartingfroma

differentnote–A– insteadofC.Nowwe

haveABCDE F G. Thepatternofintervals

haschanged– it’snowT-S-T-T- S -T-T,whichis

whyit sounds‘sadder’.Thisistheinterval

patternofa naturalminorscale,sowhat

we’vegothereisactuallyA naturalminor.

2

SoeventhoughthescalesofC major

andA minorstartfromdifferent root

notes– C andA – theyactuallycontain the

samesetofsevennotes,andthis

relationshipmakesthemrelativescales. A

minoristherelativeminorofC major, and

C majoristherelativemajorofA minor.

3

If wethenharmonisebothofthese

scales,bystackingupalternatenotes

fromthescaleontoeachnote,weendup

withtwosetsofthree-notechords.These

‘diatonictriads’arewhatmakeupeach

key,andthediatonicsetsforbothkeys– C

majorandA minor– arethesamechords

inthesameorder,butreadfromdifferent

pointsinthesequence.

4

Thismeansthat,justaswiththetwo

scales,thetwokeysarerelatedinthe

sameway.A minoristherelativeminorof

C major,andC majoristherelativemajor

ofA minor.Therelativekeyofa minorkey

isalwaysmajorandtherelativekeyofa

majorkeyisalwaysminor.

5

Wecanusetworelativekeysfor

differentsectionsofa song,tocreate a

shiftinmoodfrom,say,versetochorus. To

illustrate,here’sanexampleofa verse

sectioninA minor,usinga i - VI- iv- VII

progressionthat,inthiskey,translates to

Am- F - Dm- G.

6

Downloadtheaccompanying

videoandtheMIDI/audiofilesat

filesilo.co.uk/computermusic

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TUTORIAL

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Dave Clews’

Relative & parallel scales

Get your head around the difference between these concepts and

your songwriting vocabulary will be all the richer for it, says Dave

#79

70 / COMPUTER MUSIC / July 2019