Why C major and A minor are Not the Same

Your videos sum up four years of basic theory in about two hours, which blows my mind Thanks

Wish my music teacher explained it to me like this about 10 years ago.

A key is a "relationship" of notes. Two keys may share the same notes, but that doesn't mean the relationships between the notes are the same for those keys. Your mom might also be a family member to me. But that doesn't mean she is also my mom. Same person - different relationship.

wonderful that he added the psycho-acoustical aspects of the keys. Yes the brain is adaptive, and our hearing locks onto the base note of the key. a fascinating aspect that explains what otherwise would seem quite arbitrary

I know this is five years ago... But man I have devoured these videos. I have been playing guitar (poorly) for a decade. From the beginning I have played this chord progression with finger picking that is moody and interesting. I have developed it and worked on it literally for a decade but just couldn't find where to go to expand it. I want to listen to more of this music but the only way to get it is to make it. These videos have really given me the tools and knowledge to do that. Thank you. Alot. Thank you for making this accessible. It will literally change my life.

Just stumbled across this video and I'm so glad I did.. I have been playing guitar for more than 50 years.. entirely by ear... I have been blessed with the ability to solve just about any mechanical problem ever confronts me.. I love math because of how it all works on a mutli-dimensional level, and never breaks the rules.. I have always been able to design things to solve problems for people, because I am able to visualize the problem and the solution in my mind... But music.. music has been an enigma to me.. Not so much in playing, but understanding what I'm playing and why.. The concept of minors and majors (and modes) has baffled me.. Because I know that music is mathematical... It's physics... So I could never understand the relationships in the circle of fifths, why modes are the same notes just stacked along the fretboard, but somehow sound completely different.. As a result, I couldn't 'use' any of that knowledge.. It made no sense.. In fact, the way I learned to solo was by trying to learn about modes.. I wanted those dark and exotic sounds in my playing that I heard all the greats do.. But I never could understand how all these things stacked together.. So I heard "Oh, this guy plays in dorian mode, and this guy plays in phrygian mode" So I set out to learn those modes.. But they were just patterns that I quickly discovered that if you leanred them all and how they overlapped, you could move up and down the fretboard and stay in key.. Over time, they became second nature, and I could fly all over the fretboard with ease, but I still wasn't getting those exotic sounds.. I was basically just playing major scales all over the fretboard.. I also 'sorta' learned that you could move the same patterns on some songs four frets or whatever and now be playing in minor over the major or something like that.. I had no clue... I've been searching high and low for several years now trying to unlock this mystery relationship between major, minor, and the modes.. I play much of this stuff, but have no idea what I'm doing.. But you my friend, just revealed something very very important, that I think will finally unlock all of this for me... Having a mathematical visualizing the problem mind, I always thought that theory was about exactly that.. mathematical relationships, and unfortunately, music is often taught exactly that way... For many if not most who are not 'blessed' (sarcasm here) in the same way as I am, this might not be an issue as they aren't naturally looking at it all as an engineer would, but rather they're just accepting things at face value.. But 'you' just pointed out something very critical to me that I had never considered before... The difference between all of these modes and relationships is not just mathematical (at least not primarily), but 'emotional' It's about 'perception' .. not pure math/reality... I know this is kind of long (I tend to do that), but I just wanted to say thanks, because 'finally' something just 'clicked'.. I've been looking for that 'click' for a very long time, and now I feel I might be on the verge of finally being able to 'visualize' it all in my mind, and finally understand the 'relationships'... I have never been one who was content to just 'monkey see, monkey do' things.. I always want to know 'why' because that's how I build my own stuff... my own way... Anyway, I rarely comment on anything on YouTube, and I guess I've been storing it up because I just wrote a novel.. LMAO.. So thanks for the new way of looking at things... Now that I understand it's just a trick of the mind, that it's about 'emphasis,' I have a way of moving forward.. Why weren't you around 4 decades ago??? Subscribed! Gonna go see what else you got out there... Finally a teacher that has the answers to my questions, instead of answers to all the questions I never asked... I'm kinda excited right now... I knew it had to be something simple that was standing between me and the truth.. Awesome!

Thanks man I'm still figuring out the music theory part of music making and this was very helpful.

This is super interesting, and you talk about it so clear. Thanks man, you rock!

You explained something in 10 minutes in a way I can understand it after learning it for years. Especially comparing the wholetone scale was really insightful.

2:55 Joke's on you, I counted "1 2 3" in 4/4 time without even thinking about it: "1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3"

it took me so long to unterstand this concept, i wish i had this video back then. your explanation is very very clear and well thought out. i loved the introduction with the whole tone scale

This is, by far, the best explanation of music theory I have ever heard! Good job, keep going and tnx!

Thanks for taking the time to make this video. It is the clearest articulation of an issue I've wrestled with for ages - finally it makes sense, and has put in place for me several other pieces of the music theory jigsaw at the same time! Billiant. Thanks!

thank god I just watched this video. this maybe so simple but surprisingly they never seem to talk about this in music classes. The amount of time I've wasted trying to figure out what scale I'm actually playing in! Turns out I'm using these notes but treating some other note as the tonic.

Great explanation! This is the only video I found explaining "why A minor when there's already C major", while most videos are demonstrating how to infer minor scale notes from major scale notes (which made no sense to me until this video). Thank you.

Always great material here!, keep it up!

Your lesson on modes helped me understand this - the notes are the same, but the intervals between the tones changes, for instance 7-8th being a whole tone in Am instead of a half tone as in C. That idea of the “instructions” you explained in the video was immensely valuable and explains everything better than anywhere I’ve ever found.

Sometimes there's a confusion between those eg. A minor vs C Major. But sometimes a song/piece is obvious that it's a minor or otherwise.

great stuff man! Im trying to expand my songs. Im self taught and watching your videos really helps me to tie it in all together so it makes a perfect harmony of knowledge! Thanks man!

Thank you Michael so very much for this video! I've been trying to wrap my head around modes for the last couple months, and this was the the most helpful video I have seen thus far.