@@seandaniel23 I was playing the scale, and accidentally sharped the 4. The four and sharped 4 sounded pretty good together in the minor pentatonic scale. Any reason why/other ways to edit the scale to make it sound pretty nice?
A friend of mine once asked an 80 year old man what he would do over if he was a teenager again. His answer, "if I were a teenager again, I would major in minors." True story.
I am a bass player who loves all music. Please don't stop what you're doing. I wish that I had music teachers like you when I was a kid. People like you make the world a better place. Just wanted to say thanks for making a difference.
That intro joke was offensive to me, my wife, cousin and sister. She and I both did not appreciate it. HAHAHA great videos man! Thanks for the knowledge!
Hands down, the best music theory video I have ever seen. I came in to learn about relative minors, and you ended up teaching me how to jam 20 times better than before. Thank you so much, I just subscribed
Of all the RU-vid videos, of all the lessons I’ve taken, for all the years I’ve been playing, this video opened an understanding that no one has ever opened to me!!! This was sooooo amazingly useful!! Thank you so much!!!
You broke this down perfectly! Thank you for sharing this music theory. BTW: Do you ever find it shocking that 87,000 people have watched this lesson? Look up Jordan-Hare Stadium (Alabama). It's maximum capacity is around 87,000. Imagine everyone who viewed this lesson filling that stadium to the max and cheering you on... because we ARE.
I’m my head the way you showed how to back up three frets clicked in my head it’s like the reverse of the minor pentatonic scales. Wow glad I learned that first thanks dude!!!!!
Sean thanks for your very helpful guitar podcast. I'm not too good but I tend to learn something useful from great instructors like you nearly everyday. Thank very much Sean
There's a great very simple method to find the key. Our ears are so attuned to the scales that fit the music we hear that all you need to do is play any note on the guitar. You will know instantly if it's in the key. Then just play down the scale using your instincts to tell you whether it's a whole step or a half step down. When you hit the tonic note you will know it and have your key. No awkward hunting up and down the neck.
I've been strumming boring chords for most of my life, now in semi retirement I finally have the time and cash to take guitar lessons. I noticed since I started lessons I play less. I've been four weeks on relative minors and was about to give up trying. Lucky I found this video. Why can't all guitar teachers make it this easy and interesting?
Dude! YEAH!!! I love the "Three Note Trick" to reveal the Major Key to a chord progression! You gotta use the POWER of the Relative Minor and then move it up three frets to reveal the Major Key! I can see that being VERY HELPFUL!!! Thank you!!!
How to find the key tip is great! I've watched a ton of RU-vid videos on this and this is the first that actually works for me. Deserves it's oven video!
Been playing for years and really started investing in learning and understanding These videos are concise and funny and really helpful. Some of the best music knowledge videos I've seen
Sorry I had to comment again in this video. I struggled so much with this topic, and you just made me a better guitar player in just few minutes. I used to believe that they key of a song (at least a simple chord progression) could be found in the first chord played. However, it does sound much better using the relative minor. I was about to go to sleep, at the moment writing this comment is 2:15 am here in Toronto, but fuck sleeping I will go to play some guitar....thank you so much.
This was helpful, really. I was always kinda "afraid" of soloing with other guitarists as I'm not the thoery-kinda guy, but I'll use this trick from now on; thanks!
Man I was always in the same boat. Just dive into that minor pentatonic and if you end up in the wrong spot just pretend you're doing something far out.
Hilarious! (And useful of course) “Im in the key of love ...” “Whatever but that’s not helping me at all ...” ... i have to go back and watch the rest as the laughter floored me! 😊
Love these videos, thanks. Can I just add (and I may be wrong here), that when you say you can count up 3 frets from the root of the E minor Pentatonic scale to work out that you're in the key of G, you could also just say that you've been playing the G Maj pentatonic scale, which has the same shape but with a different root.
This one is great, I knew this stuff but the EBG string to find the relative minor is loads quicker than how I'd been finding the key (playing the full first shape of the pent scale) thanks a lot these videos are magic
Hi Sean, Could you do a video on blues solo phrasing, focusing on how to vary expressions by ending on 3rds and 5ths, and incorporate double stops? I love double stop blues licks but I rarely see them on tutorials - preferably using a few of the scale shapes? Appreciate this is a lot of variables, but I'm seeing a lot of first shape licks on peoples videos and I want to go past that. Maybe bring in some relative minor pent with it?
The backing up 3 frets to find relative minor helped. I, also, will try that pentatonic trick to find what key I'm in with chords sequence I create (I have no idea).
another dope lesson glad I found your channel. Your humor is what keeps me around tho due to my low attention span due to my love for the ganja. but you spice it up but keep them sweet and short i feel sour for the other guys
Awesome lesson .. my favorite part was when you figured out the key and what notes to use to solo over the chords.. i need improvement on soloing sure this will help thanks
Thanks so much! I've definitely got plans for stuff like that in the future but in the meantime I'll keep cranking them out here on youtube. I appreciate the support!
What is the key of love? I haven't heard of it before? Is it necessary? If you don't mind I'd appreciate a video on the key of love and what genres it is used most in. If there are any bands out there who are known for that key I'd like to know. I'm guessing artists like Prince, Eric Clapton, and Taylor Swift might use the key of love. Anyway great video and Best of luck.
Amazing! Linked to this video from minor third vid, so many things suddenly starting to slot into place! Should have kept my lessons up 20 years ago and not had a decade away from playing gin between! And that intro joke 🤣 boom 💥!
The way you're taught if you study classically is to go down three tones _in the key_ from the tonic. Going down three semitones isn't as useful as that concept because if the relative minor is a flat or sharp then you don't know which note it belongs to if you don't know that it's three notes down from the tonic.
I figured that out backwards. I typically use the pentatonic scale (Which is basically a minor scale with missing notes) and go to it's second note (or the corresponding 3rd minor note) and that's my mayor scale. I have to learn how to do it the normal way.
Sean, This does not effect the way you showed to find the unknown key at the end of this lesson, but there are things that throw me concerning scales. You played Em pentatonic first position when you found the right fret. How can you know it's not more suited to the 4th position of the Am pentatonic scale, as to what notes sound best as they both (and other positions of other minor pentatonic scales) start on the 12th fret at E.. I know this is not a good question but the overlapping of scales and each minor pentatonic having 5 positions, how can you know which pattern to play? Whichever sounds best right? This does not affect the way you found the unknown scale was most likely G but does this make any sense at all? I'm new to playing using scales and there is so much to learn it's easy to feel overwhelmed at times.
I hear ya man. And yeah there's no specific reason I chose that 1st position other than that it's the one my own ear is most accustomed to finding. And I think that's a good way to start looking at it where you get to know one shape really well, train your ear to recognize it and start from there :)
Would you be able to do the same thing to find a minor key using its relative major key? For example play the top three strings like you did but use a major triad instead of the minor triad like you did, and just slide that up until you find what sounds right. Then once you find what sounds right, just slide the root note down a step and a half to find the relative minor?
Isn't the big think with pentatonik scales that they're "neutral"? The notes that changes between major and minor scales have been taken out. That's why you can play both C and A pentatonik over a C major using the same scale shapes.
That's not totally correct. There are 5 different pentatonic shapes and they each have small differences. For instance you're using the A minor pentatonic scale (A-C-D-E-G) the A and E shapes have minor thirds in them, so those would definitely 'clash' over a major chord of that root note. So while they are 'more neutral' the tones still retain some of the characteristics of the full major/minor scale.
Sean, Question! Whats the difference between playing in the Key of C major and A minor? They include all the same notes, so what differentiates a song from being in C major or A minor?
+SuperAssasinSteve It's all about tonal center. Me and Ian made a video on minor vs major pentatonic you should check out. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DUMb0GqNBhY.html
Hi Sean, i understand why the minor relative is really handfull since we can use our favourite minor penta licks in A minor over a C chord for axample. But what i don't get is what does a relative minor offers in terms of notes? Let's say i put a A min vamp , i can play A min triads over it and C major triads since Cmajor is the relative of Aminor? What playing the C major triad will bring compared to the Aminor triad? Hope you see what i mean..... Thank you.
+vodoo57 alessio I think if I understand your question correctly, the triads you use will always give you the proper notes in the key you're in. A C major triad is - c-e-g and an A minor triad is a-c-e. So they actually share two of those notes. Now if you play a C major triad solo over an Am chord, you're working with the notes a-c-e-g, which is actually an Am7 chord. So any way you mix it up it'll sound great!
The relative minor is just 3 frets down from the major scale. G major, 3 frets down is E minor. From there just apply whatever minor scale (A major down 3 frets F# minor etc...) simple really
Yeah definitely use the c major scale it'll sound great. In this example it's more using the A minor position of the C major scale to try and find the key. I just use that as an example because I feel that minor pentatonic position is the first one most people learn. Thanks for watchin!
