Relatively Speaking: Finding the Relative Minor

When we start to learn about scales and / or key signatures, we often begin so by learning major keys and major scales. However, what we don’t always immediately appreciate is that by using 95% of knowledge that we already pick up from these, we can also learn an equal amount of minor scales, thus doubling our scale repertoire.

All we need to do is to learn one of a few simple tactics to help us in find the relative minor of our major scale / major key, and that is what we will explore here.

But first, a refresher…

What is Major and Minor?

When we talk about major and minor, we’re really talking about tonality. Tonality refers in its simplest form to the mood of a piece of music, and ultimately the reasons for many these moods can be traced to one of two tonalities:

• Major: can sound happy, fun, optimistic / hopeful, funny / amusing, light.

  
  

• Minor: can sound sad, melancholy, pessimistic, frightening, dark.

Our major scales follow the typical “do-re-mi” pattern of a scale, which is tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone up to the root. By changing the order of these tones and semitones, however, we can create a minor scale starting from the same note. A typical minor scale might be tone, semitone, tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone up to the root (natural minor), and by starting on the same note and changing those tones and semitones around a bit we create what is called a parallel minor (e.g. G major and G minor are parallel major and minor of one another - they share the root note / tonic note).

But that’s a touch convoluted to learn a system of tones and semitones. What is easier still is for you to learn minor scales as relative minors because - if you do do this - you can understand how key signatures slot together more and much more easily work out the notes in a minor scale based around the major scale.

What is a Relative Minor?

A Relative Minor is a minor key or a minor scale that shares the same rules as its relative major. By rules, we are referring to sharps or flats that are found within that key.

For example, D major features two sharps - F♯ and C♯.

Somewhere on the keyboard there is a scale / key that follows these same rules but starts on a different note, thus creating the rearranged tone / semitone configuration and creating a minor tone, but not starting on the same note - therefore creating a different key!

All we have to do is find it!

So let’s have an explore of a few techniques we can look at to establish what it is…

Finding the Relative Minor

The Interval Method

Perhaps the most straightforward method to learn is to count up or down the scale in intervals. This is straightforward because it uses what you already know - the major scale and single digit numbers - to find your answer. You just have to remember which direction and which number!

Always count your root note / tonic as number 1 and count up your major scale to 6.

Alternatively, count down your major scale to 3.

Let’s use our D major to exemplify:

Counting up:

D = 1

E = 2

F♯ = 3

G = 4

A = 5

B = 6

…or backwards:

D = 1

C♯ = 2

B = 3

…and there is your answer!

Hold that thought whilst we just explore a slightly different method…

The Triad Chord Method

Naturally, this technique comes more into its own when you’re more confident with triad chords, But when you are it becomes much easier to visualise the relative minor on a keyboard, thus getting your answer much more quickly!

Remembering that our triad chords are made up of intervals root - 3 - 5, remember that the bottom two notes of our major triad will be the top two or the relative minor triad.

So D major as a triad chords is

D

F♯

A

The bottom two notes are D and F♯, so our relative minor is (root) - D - F♯.

If you know what note needs to go at the bottom to complete this minor triad chord, you win.

It’s B!

Playing Minor Scales based around the Relative Major

Now we have established that B is the relative minor of D major, we can put into practice our skills and play a B minor scale!

All you have to do is remember that it shares the same ‘rules’ as its relative major, thus it features F♯ and C♯. Therefore, we can play a B minor scale as:

B - C♯ - D - E - F♯ - G - A - B

This creates the most basic form of a minor scale and is known as the ‘natural minor’. Be aware that other forms are available! For example, the ‘harmonic minor’ features a raised seventh and the ‘melodic minor’ comes down differently to how it goes up! Read this blog here for more information on learning the different types, but this blog you are reading now was written more with the intention of helping you identify the relative minor and putting it into practice.

One Last Trick…

Because majors and their relative minors share their sharps or flats, it is fair to recognise that using the key signature at the beginning of a piece of music could potentially mean the piece could be in either key!

So, if you see a piece that appears to be in D major because it has two sharps and flats in the key signature:…

…then do remember it might also be in its relative minor - B minor.

Take a look at this excerpt from a score by Haydn below to see a couple of tricks as to how you could learn to recognise by just looking:

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Jack Mitchell Smith is a piano teacher based in Congleton, Cheshire. Click here to find out more.

Weekly blogs are posted that may help you with your musical or piano journey. Click here to sign up to the mailing list so you never miss a post!

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Exposition, Development, Recapitulation: How Learning Sonata Form Can Dramatically Improve Learning Classical Piano Music

The sonata. One of the most widely used forms in all of classical music (including the Baroque and Romantic periods!).

I have played a fair few sonatas in my time and - as with any piece - I have delved head first into learning them from the beginning through to the end and, whilst I have always been aware of a certain structure, I have often found it difficult to exemplify the sections of a sonata.

Don't worry - it will all become clear soon!

Here’s where the Internet is very useful: I can look up blogs, articles and YouTube videos on the matter and surely they can explain to me using simple terminology what the sections of a sonata are? And give examples?

Wrong!

So in this blog I hope to alleviate any concerns you may have yourselves as to what each of the definitions encompassed by ‘Sonata Form’ means.

But first: a word of warning:

Sonata Form and Sonata Cycle Are Different!

Many of us when we think of sonatas will think of Beethoven (‘Moonlight Sonata’) or Mozart (‘Piano Sonata in C Major’), yet if we actually look at these in any drawn out capacity we will realise that both of these have actually got several extremely different movements.

Therefore, the classical / romantic definition of a sonata is actually there to refer to a bigger body of work for a solo instrument / duet / small group. These are typically in three or four movements and on the whole this is referred to as the ‘Sonata Cycle’.

Typically you will find that this is the most common layout of a three movement sonata:

• Allegro: This movement is normally allegro, i.e. fast. Structurally, this is the movement that is in Sonata Form. Read on to find out exactly what this is!

• Adagio / Andante: A slower movement, usually in what we call ‘Ternary Form’. Ternary Form in its simplest form is A - B - A, where A is one section of music and B is a different section. Therefore, the piece starts and ends with the same music (variations are, of course, permitted!) but with an interjection of a section that flows beautifully from and into section A but isn’t the same. This second movement can also be expanded into a rondo (see next bit!).

• Allegro / Vivace: The third movement is back to being fast or lively (vivace). These often take a Rondo form, which expands on the ternary form structure by adding a C section (and D, E, F etc. - however long the composer wishes) to create a structure of A - B - A - C - A - D - A etc., ultimately with one distinctive theme / section returning (again, variants are permitted!).

This cycle isn’t set in stone, however. This is just a typical and fairly standard structure that composers would follow. And seeing as this blog is just going over the basics for you, I won’t even get into the infinite idiosyncrasies of what can become when additional movements are added, structures of certain movements change etc…

Because we’re focussing our attention on Sonata Form today:

So…getting your history caps on for a moment, it wasn’t until what we now recognise as the Classical Period that the Sonata Cycle developed, and originally a sonata - such as a Baroque era sonata such as those defined by Scarlatti or early Haydn - was a piece of music that followed the sonata form (as the opening movements of our Sonata Cycle ought).

Which begs the question: what is the Sonata Form?

Sonata Form Broken Down

The Sonata Form can be broken down into three key components: Exposition, Development and Recapitulation.

Before you read on about Sonata Form, it might be best to have a quick recap of some terminology and tonality phraseology:

• Tonic: Tonic refers to the home key - or the root key. Note how sonatas typically title themselves “… Sonata in … major / minor”. Well, that major / minor refers to the key signature.

• Dominant: The dominant note / chord is the fifth note / chord in a scale. So if you take the key signature of a piece of music and work out five notes up the scale, you find your dominant. For example, in the key and its corresponding scale of D major, D = 1, E = 2, F# = 3, G = 4 and A = 5. Therefore, in the key of D major, the dominant is note A and dominant chord is A major.. In classical musical theory, the dominant is always major, so even if this were in D minor, the dominant would still be A major.

• Relative Major / Minor: This refers to the key signature that shares the same sharp / flat notes with another. Each major key has a relative minor, and each minor key has a relative major. A relative major key sits 3 notes up on the corresponding minor scale. For example, in A minor, the corresponding scale of A minor reads A = 1, B = 2 and C = 3. Thus, C major is the relative major of A minor. This works counting down from a major, of course, or you can count six up in a major scale to find the relative minor. For example, the relative minor of E major would mean finding the corresponding scale of E and counting up six: E = 1, F# = 2, G# = 3, A = 4, B = 5, C# = 6. Therefore, C# minor is the relative minor of E major.

Now that we have refreshed our minds a little on those terms, let’s explore the separate sections of Sonata Form. To exemplify, I shall use examples from the first movement of Mozart's Piano Sonata in C Major (K 279):

Exposition

If the Exposition could talk, it would literally say “oh hey, it’s me!” - or words to that effect. Exposition is the part of sonata form where we introduce not one, but two themes (you can actually introduce as many as you like, but two is standard and three is often done - any more might drag!).

These two or more themes or ideas can be introduced and shown off (exposition by definition, see!) however the composer wishes. They can be as drastically different as the composer wishes, or they could in fact, if the composer wished, be identical except for one fundamentally crucial difference: they are in a different key!

And here’s where out little recap of terminology comes in useful:

Let’s say you are playing piece in Sonata Form that is in C major and your exposition introduces two themes. Theme One must always be in the tonic. Therefore, theme one must be in C major.

Theme two, by contrast, should be in a different key. And is there a rule to this? Yes! Is it a rule that’s frequently broken by many composers across the centuries? Also yes! But the general consensus is that your next theme should be in the dominant key. That means your first theme is in C major, your second theme in G major.

If you were in a minor key - C minor, for example - you would simply stick to the tonic for the first theme - C minor - and your second theme would be in its relative major: E♭ major.

Are you with me so far?

Marvellous! Let’s talk about the development!

Development

The Development is chaos. And this is marvellous for everybody - for the performer, the composer, the listener. Many people get as far as learning - or even composing - the exposition in a Sonata and then panic when it gets to the Development section because now all your rules are literally out of the window. Like literally.

Except for one…

DO NOT USE THE TONIC!

The whole purpose of the Development is to create a sense of distance and longing for where we’ve come from, thus the Exposition themes are very nice and grounded, whether major or minor, whereas the Development will not be so much. For this reason, any key is permitted with the exception of the tonic. So, if the composer wants to work up the keys chromatically and never resolve any of them, let them get on with it! It’s all part of the sense of creating a sense of unease or tension which will be resolved (just you wait for the Recapitulation!), but in terms of what’s actually happening at this moment in time and where it’s going before it gets there - it’s anybody’s guess!

I should point out, however, that Development does point just a little bit more to the idea of developing our mood in this respect: there is a much more musical mindset behind it too. Themes are borrowed from any or all themes in the Exposition section and incorporated in some way, often with jarring non-resolve or discordance. This is, of course, all part of the composer’s master plan to make the re-establishing of the original themes so much more satisfying!

And just like that, here they are…

Recapitulation

And…back to beginning!

Sort of!

Whatever theme or themes were established in the Exposition now come back with a vengeance.

Well, not so much the first theme because - whilst slight variations are always permitted - we’ve already heard that bit!

But the second theme. Oh yes, here’s where it gets super fun!

The second theme was not in the tonic, remember. According to good practice, it was either in the dominant key for a piece in a major key, or the relative major for a piece in the minor key, thus giving stark contrast to the first theme and also leaving a sense of non-resolve before leading into the Development.

However, the Development section took care of that by making a weird and wonderful journey back to the original key. We’re now finishing the piece - we don’t want to finish the piece in a weird place that makes us sit on the end of our seats because we’re not back where we started - back ‘home’, so to speak.

So what do we do?

We transpose the second theme back down to the original key!

Thus, everything finishes with a nice resolve, often punctuated by a grand perfect cadence to really finalise the deal!

Does That Account For Every Bar?

…noooooo, that would be too straightforward, wouldn’t it?…

Introduction

Remember that the first theme in the Exposition doesn’t have to be introduced right from the off. This sometimes happens, such as the first movement in Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata’, but it isn’t the only way of establishing it. Take the below example of a Scarlatti Sonata in D minor:

Eagle Eyed readers may have noticed something extraordinary: yes we are notated as being in the key of D minor, however it takes literally 30 bars to get to that key. If you were to play this with the flats and sharps notated, you would realise that we are much closer to G minor up until bar 23, and even then we have a fair few bars until we establish D minor.

So a further interesting rule of a notated sonata: you always score in the home key!

But back to the point, this is all introductory!

Transition (Bridge)

The purpose of the Exposition is not to be particularly jarring - the themes should be cleanly put across. Because they are in different keys (especially major keys being a tonic - dominant difference), it doesn’t sound right to just suddenly play one after the other. A transition to the new key (a modulation) is usually found. This is another section that can be a free for all for the composer: it can be quick or prolonged and often draws influences from previous or upcoming themes within the piece as opposed to being entirely fresh material.

That said, have a look at the first page from the first movement of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in C minor (no. 5 - Op. 10 No. 1). At the end of the page begins the second theme which is in E♭ major (the relative major of C minor!). However, he has taken us on an exciting journey of discovery to get there, and what with the amount of accidentals and natural signs in that passage, they often jump out of the paper like this!

Closing Themes

Closing themes don’t tend to find their way in all sonatas as a rule, but can be very useful in creating a much more satisfactory piece of music for both performer and listener. When they appear, they do so towards the end of the Exposition and / or the end of the Recapitulation. Often inspired by the already established themes, they pave the way for a conclusive ending.

Coda

The coda is the absolutely last thing that you will hear, although not all pieces have one! To identify a coda, note more so the tempo and whether or not the music appears to have drastically increased / decreased tempo or paused prior to a final blast of music. If so, the very last bit that played was it!

Why Does Learning Sonata Form Help You To Learn Classical Piano Music

So, back to the original title of this blog - how can learning Sonata Form help you to learn classical piano music?

Here is the short answer (believe it or not!)…

Because so much classical music (not just piano music) follows it!

Do you remember how I said earlier that it wasn’t until the classical period that Sonata Cycle became a thing and we developed three or four movement sonatas?

Well, these were expanding on much earlier sonatas - such as the Baroque Scarlatti one - which were really developing the form that we know and love today. And this Sonata Form was, at one time, so widely loved that it was used across the board.

So just because a piece of music isn’t a sonata doesn’t mean it’s in Sonata Form. Symphonies, Rhapsodies, Concertos and Overtures. Brahms even wrote a Rhapsody in Sonata Form!

But anyway…that’s all well and good. How can it help your understanding when you learn a piece of piano music:

Transposition and Tonality

Obviously learning by the book will improve your transposing skills anyway because you’ll be reading the same themes in different keys, but if you stop and think about it then you can actually use your own understanding of key to your advantage. Just think about it: Sonata Form depends on the recycling of the same themes in different keys, so work on your transposition skills and think about what notes to play and where rather than just reading them. Improving on your transposing skills will really help you to learn pieces quicker in this form as you will be able to tick off more bars at once because of how much the same bars repeat in different keys!

Telling a Story

Playing a piece that you recognise as being in this form will help you to tell a story at the piano, literally!

Exposition = Introducing your Characters. Development = Conflict / Tension. Recapitulation = Resolution.

Use this understanding to your advantage to create a wonderful soundscape.

To hear everything in practice, have a watch of my video below and be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel!

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Jack Mitchell Smith is a piano teacher based in Congleton, Cheshire. Click here to find out more.

Weekly blogs are posted that may help you with your musical or piano journey. Click here to sign up to the mailing list so you never miss a post!

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Keeping it Simple - Playing Piano Music That Is Easy!

Of course, ‘easy’ is a relative term. To a beginner, learning how to play one note simultaneously against the regular click of a metronome can be a challenge whereas the virtuoso pianist might find Liszt’s ‘Hungarian Rhapsody’ a breeze.

But one thing that we can all certainly agree on is that all of us find certain things easier than others, and I feel it is very important to make a plea to all of us - whether learners, amateurs or professionals, teachers etc. - to not always feel compelled to look forward.

Looking forward is a wonderful thing as it keeps us motivated - it tantalises our tastebuds towards the next challenge. You can do x so now you can take on y, so to speak. In addition to this, it is this craving and actively doing so that keeps us continually improving and becoming the best pianist that we can be (this is also adaptable to just about anything else you work towards!) And that is wonderful, but there are some drawbacks to only looking ahead in this way and in this blog I would like to explore the joy of looking backwards, using a couple of examples from Edvard Grieg’s ‘Lyric Pieces’ (‘Lyrische Stücke).

So sit back and relax as I take you on a train of thought as to why you should balance your learning between pushing yourself and looking at simple piano music that is well within your standards.

Develop More Piano Repertoire

Perhaps the easiest explanation I can give you here is that it will increase what you have at your disposal when it comes to sitting down at the instrument and playing. Not only is this invaluable when you are pulling together a set for a recital (especially if, like me, you have regular places you play at and you don’t like to repeat yourself!), but it also keeps it interesting for you as a performer sat at home enjoying the instrument.

On the fabulous outlet of TikTok I came across a hardcore reader of fiction whilst scrolling through the aptly named ‘BookTok’ trend, and his answer to how he was able to read so many books in the space of, say, a year when some of these books were literally epic novels is that he made sure he always had shorter books on the go alongside them.

It’s a no brainer really, and astonishingly when it comes to actually learning something - such as music - you’d be surprised at how one-at-a-time your mind doesn’t need to take it. One of our biggest fears is that we’ll neglect learning a piece properly or not be able to pick up another one until one is fully mastered but in truth, this is actually not the case!

So next time you’re working towards some 20 minute rhapsody that takes you half a year to learn, remember that by chunking out your practise time more effectively you can develop a whole host of additional repertoire alongside, bulking up how much you can play and allowing your attention to be more focused when it comes to learning the longer pieces.

Validation: You’ve Got This!

Learning piano is hard! Actually, scrap that - playing is hard! I can play, of course. And I will admit that I still struggle at times. Sometimes this is merely a confidence issue depending on situation, it can be a mind blank, I can be not in the zone, tired, hands hurt, ears hurt, not sounding as good as it once did etc. etc. So of course learning the instrument is difficult. And learning pieces is hard too.

If you go full pelt towards a piece of music that is the next step up from your level - or often even at the level you’re at - it can be one of the most soul destroying journeys you go on. Not to say you won’t get there and you won’t be able to play your piece very well by the end, of course. But there are two things that will work against you mentally:

• It’s extremely slow progress: this means that you’ll be plodding away at the same bit or bits again and again, meaning that you will inevitably struggle to find the motivation to keep coming back because you won’t feel likely you’re getting anywhere.

• You won’t be able to play it properly for a long time: even when you have learned it, perfecting it and making sure it plays through how you want it to can take just as long. Imagine that this can take a few months, and now imagine that this is all you’re ever showing for it. By the end, you’ll have a piece of music that you can play well but might feel rather stale to you.

Compare this with the alternative: you get to the end of the same amount of time and you have 10 pieces. Some or all considerably more straightforward or shorter. Yes we go back to the first point of having developed more repertoire which is very practical, but it is very notable for other reasons too:

• You learnt this in a short amount of time: learning 10 piano pieces in a few months is fantastic, regardless of how easy you might look at them. And being able to learn them in such a small space of time is a huge boost to confidence.

• You’ll still love playing piano: furthermore, because your entire practice / playing regime hasn’t revolved around one piece of music over and over and over, the whole instrument appears fresh, including the piece of music that has been the centre point of focus!

Use Simple Pieces of Piano Music to Practice Technique

Technique is a very important part of playing piano, but the problem with technique is that we have to learn it alongside…playing the piano! Throwback to earlier when I wrote ‘playing is hard’…so how can you possibly be expected to develop good technique whilst all this is going through your mind?

Use simple music!

Of course, you could resort to more traditional warm ups such as scales / arpeggios etc., but the difference between using a piece of music vs. the traditional exercises is that you will be almost unquestionably more motivated when it comes to playing the music - even if it’s spectacularly easy!

If we take a look at Grieg’s first Lyric Piece (‘Arietta’), we can clearly see that there is some voicing required. This basically means that there has to be individual lines against other individual lines - those notes at the top being our melody above an arpeggio.

The beauty of many of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces is that they are relatively easy to play, so as long as you can get a good sense of playing it and keeping the right notes played at the right time, a good flow etc. then you can put a bit more attention into bringing out those to notes. Voicing is especially important for many complex pieces on piano, such as Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C# minor. However, this is not easy to play regardless of trying to bring the voices out or not!

So if voicing is something that needs a little work for you, practising away from your ‘main’ piece might just be the thing you need.

For a video recap of all the points above (starring a brand new shiny microphone!), see my YouTube video below and make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel to never miss a vid!

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Jack Mitchell Smith is a piano teacher based in Congleton, Cheshire. Click here to find out more.

Weekly blogs are posted that may help you with your musical or piano journey. Click here to sign up to the mailing list so you never miss a post!

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