My teacher told me to look up the theory of Relative Minor.
I've have no clue what it is and all the videos I've seen suck.
Anyone can thoroughly explain it.

I can't explain the theory of it indepth really but what my teacher told me is that when playing the major scale, three frets lower than that is the relative minor.
g| 4
d| 5 7
a| 5 7 8
e| 8

Assuming you were to play the major scale in that way. :P

That's all I know.

Hmm I was looking for more theory in depth. I don't really like broad explanations.

The relative minor is the major scale starting from its sixth note. Assuming you've done some research on modes, the mode would then be Aeolian.

To put it as simply as ever, like Steve pointed out, the relative minor is the natural minor scale starting from 3 half steps below the major scale. In the case of C major, the relative minor would be...

...you got it: A minor!

Another way of approaching the natural minor scale is to build it in steps. The major scale is built from two tetra chords separated by a whole step, which equals to whole - whole - half - whole - whole - whole - half, the tetra chords being the bolded ones.

But with the natural minor scale, you start building the chord from the sixth note on the major scale. Following the same pattern from the correct note, you'll end up with whole - half - whole - whole - half - whole - whole.

I hope all this didn't come out messy, but I can't come up with a proper way to explain it.

Just try recording yourself playing a major scale over and over, then overlap the track with the scale's relative minor: sounds a lot like those fast runs Cacophony was all about.

Hmm I understand a lot better. So if I did B major it's relative minor is G.
What about when finding relative major, do I got three half steps up.

G#/Ab

Your second assumption is correct.

Oh my bad I knew that. Thanks for the theory. Now I can explain it to my guitar teacher. Hopefully he won't interrupt and correct me when I make a mistake like yesterday. Lolz. I was trying explain why triads are major, minor, diminished, and augmented. Messed up on Major 3rds. I should've explained it using the C major scale.

Haha, keeps you on your toes!

If you've got to explain it to him, here's the briefest summary I can think of:

- The relative minor starts from the sixth note of the major scale

- The relative minor is the Aeolian mode of the major scale

- In practice, just play the natural minor scale three half steps below the major scale (do no rely on this mindset, though, as you can play it elsewhere on the guitar too!)

You should know what the relative minor is by now, but don't forget to actually learn to play it, haha!

Thanks for the quick notes.
I'm going to have to leave out the Aeolian. Because he's been getting on me for learning scales that I have no theory about. Anyways I'll use the other notes. I recently borrowed a Slonimsky's dictionary of music. It got a lot of definitions in it. About everything music wise. It said for relative minor, "a minor third before the root."

C (or any key) Major Scale starting from A (or any key) is the relative minor scale. And C Major uses the same notes as A Aeolian. Just starting on a different note.

Find and get your hands on the Contemporary Music Theory series by Mark Harrison. Do eeeeet.

Really, it's the most easy-to-understand theory I've found anywhere. And if you do try to find it, start from the very first book in the series, even if the material seems easy to you: the basics is what everything else is based upon.

And no probs for the advices, hopefully they were of assistance.

I have Chords and Harmony by Jim Aikan. It's a great book too.
Plus I'm taking theory class which is about to end next month.
I've heard about that book several times. I think I'll look into it.