Welcome to Gaia! ::

Well.

Here.

A D Major scale is this:

D - E - F# - G - A - B - C# - D

A d minor scale is this:

D - E - F - G - A - Bb - C - D

So, compared to the major scale, the F# is lowered to F, the B is lowered to Bb, and the C# is lowered to C.

Another example could be;

A G Major scale is this:

G - A - B - C - D - E - F# - G

A g minor scale is this:

G - A - Bb - C - D - Eb - F - G

In general, natural minor scales have a lowered third, sixth, and seventh note.
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Between the notes of a scale is the following pattern; W meaning a whole step, and H meaning half step:

In a major scale, the pattern is: W - W - H - W - W - W - H
In a minor scale, the pattern is: W - H - W - W - H - W - W

Meaning, in the D major scale, between D and E is a whole step, between E and F# is a whole step, between F# and G is a half step, and so on.

If you need to know about melodic or harmonic minors, lemme know. biggrin

EDIT: Wow, reading this over, I sound like a textbook. I suppose College Music Theory paid off big time, huh? XD

I was going to try to explain the whole "down a step and a half to go major to minor" thing, but it's a bit confusing to try to do without a graphic and I was posting from school, so. lol Then again, I wasn't trying to show her relative minors, I was trying to show parallel minors so she can understand it easier.

I agree that learning minors by relative minors is a lot better to do for the long run, but initially, learning minors by thinking of them as majors with lowered thirds, sixths and sevenths is easier to get a grasp at first.

At least, that's how I was able to learn them a few years ago in my freshman year of high school and I know my minor and major keys just fine.

yay! educational stuff! heart