In music, the relative minor of a particular major key (or the relative major of a minor key) is the key which has the same key signature but a different tonic, as opposed to parallel minor/major. For example, G major and E minor both have a single sharp in their key signature; so we say that E minor is the relative minor of G major. The relative minor of a major key always has a tonic a minor third lower.
A complete list of relative minor/major pairs is:
- C major - A minor
- C sharp/D flat major - A sharp/B flat minor
- D major - B minor
- E flat major - C minor
- E major - C sharp minor
- F major - D minor
- F sharp/G flat major - D sharp/E flat minor
- G major - E minor
- A flat major - F minor
- A major - F sharp minor
- B flat major - G minor
- B/C flat major - G sharp/A flat minor
