There are many parts of music theory that can take a little time to memorize so a quick reference guide can help. But I also explain below how these key relationships are derived.
Here are the relative and parallel minor and major keys for every key signature.
| Number of sharps or flats | Major | Relative Minor | Parallel Minor |
| 0 | C | A | C |
| 1 sharp | G | E | G |
| 2 sharps | D | B | D |
| 3 sharps | A | F# | A |
| 4 sharps | E | C# | E |
| 5 sharps | B | G# | B |
| 6 sharps | F# | D# | F# |
| 7 sharps | C# | A# | C# |
| 1 flat | F | D | F |
| 2 flats | B-flat | G | B-flat |
| 3 flats | E-flat | C | E-flat |
| 4 flats | A-flat | F | A-flat |
| 5 flats | D-flat | B-flat | D-flat |
| 6 flats | G-flat | E-flat | G-flat |
| 7 flats | C-flat | A-flat | C-flat |
How do you find the relative minor key from the major key?
It’s better to understand how the above chart is built and the relationships between the keys rather than memorize it.
First, to be able to do this you must know your major key signatures. The second thing you need to know is what a half-step is. If you know those two things, then you can find the relative minor to any key.
Steps to find the relative minor key
- Determine the major key you are working with.
- Go down 3 half-steps from the first note of the major key (the tonic, scale degree 1).
- The note you land on is now the first note of your relative minor.
Easy! Here is one issue to watch out for:
- If your major key has sharps, then your minor key should continue to use sharps.
- For example, if you are in B major (5 sharps) and count down three half-steps to A-flat that would be wrong. Even though G-sharp and A-flat are enharmonic equivalents, you are spelling the relative minor incorrectly. The relative minor of B major is G-sharp not A-flat.
- Same warning goes for keys that have flats.
How do you find the relative major key from the minor key?
To find the relative major key from a minor, take the first note of your minor key and go up three half-steps. The note you land on is now the first note of your major scale.
How to find the parallel minor or major key
This is even more simple than finding the relative keys. All you do is take the name of the key and change it from major to minor or minor to major.
For example:
- C major becomes C minor
- C minor is the parallel of C major
- C major is the parallel of C minor
C major and C minor have distantly related key signatures – C major no sharps or flats and C minor has three flats – but both these keys have “C” as the tonic and that’s what makes them parallel.
Relative vs closely related keys
What do musicians mean by “closely related”? It means the key signatures are very similar. For example, the key of F major has one flat. The key of D natural minor also has one flat. Since they both have the same B-flat in the key signature these are relative not closely related keys. The key of B-flat major has two flats in the key signature and that means it is closely related to F-major.
If you just had to add or remove one sharp or flat to get to another key, then it is generally considered closely related. This is good to know because a lot of music will modulate to closely related keys. This knowledge will come in handy when doing roman numeral analysis or composing your own music. When modulating to a closely related key, it is less jarring to the ear if you only have to raise or lower one pitch rather than altering many pitches.
Parallel keys are not closely related
Let’s look at the key of A minor; there are no sharps or flats. The parallel major key is A major which has three sharps. Since there is the addition of three sharps to the key signature to go from A minor to A major this would sound rather jarring. There are of course ways to achieve a smoother transition – use the melodic minor version of A minor to begin to introduce the F-sharp and G-sharp – but moving to a distant key like this is trickier.