: Playing a scale in different key than song someone did some improv solos in cmaj scale while the rest of the song is being played in key of e minor. Why does this work? Saw a guy do it last night and he had no explanation

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First, notice that the key signatures of E minor and C major differ in only one note: E minor contains an F?, while C major contains no sharps or flats. Since these two keys contain almost the same notes, it should come as no surprise that a C major scale should work when playing in E minor.

Another way to look at this is to notice that the third mode of the C major scale is E Phrygian. This mode contains the same notes as an E natural minor scale with a ?2. In this view, E Phrygian is just a colorful choice to play over E minor.

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SO I’m kinda new to music but this is my best shot.

For this, you have to know 2 things, a relative minor and a dominant.

G is the fifth note in C major, and therefore is the dominant.

E is 3 half steps down from G, and so is the relative minor (has the same accidentals and stuff just is minor).