Unit 13: Relative Minor -Brown Eyed Girl

We have used only major chords up until this point, and it's time to start using minor chords. In notation, you'll see a small "m" after the root of the chord indicating it's minor tonality like this: Em

Sometimes, you'll see the abbreviation for minor like this:

Emin

Or if you're reading jazz notation, you'll see a dash like this:

E-



What makes a chord minor? A lowered 3rd scale degree. E major (1,3,5) is spelled E, G#, B. E minor (1,b3,5) is spelled E, G, B. If you've been paying attention to where these scale degrees are in the chords you already know, forming minor chords will be very easy. All you have to do is locate the third in any major voicing you know and drop it down a half step. Let's use E to start. Here's E Major with the names of the sounding pitches written in on each string:

---0---E

---0---E

---1---G#

---2---E

---2---B

---0---E



To make this chord minor, we lower the third. In E, the third is G#, so we'll make it G natural. To do this, we'll use the open G string.

---0---E
---0---E
---0---G
---2---E
---2---B
---0---E

Viola! There's E minor.
Here's and E major chord followed by an E minor chord. See if you can hear the difference:


Your written assignment is to do this to 3 other chord forms that we have learned thus far- A, D, and F. Write them out in diagram form in your notes.

The second part of this unit is the relative minor rule. It goes like this:

The vi chord (minor) can extend or replace the I chord (major) in any key. That means in the Key of G major, the vi chord is Eminor and they can be used interchangeably because they share many of the same notes. G major is spelled G,B,D and E minor is spelled E,G,B. This gives us the common I, vi, IV, V progresson that's common in 1950's tunes like "Earth Angel". It's also used in the chorus of one of my favorite Van Morrison tunes "Brown Eyed Girl". Here's the chord progression to the intro and the verse: I, IV, I, V (G,C,G,D).

The chorus uses the relative minor over the lyrics "You my, Brown Eyed Girl" C, D, G, Em.

Your assignment is to play the chord progession in the open position if you are a beginner, and in the 7th position if you are advanced.