Major Vs. Minor

So I’m sure you’ve heard about major chords and minor chords and how to play them, but what is truly the difference between the two? How is a C major chord different from C minor? Well, in a simple explanation, the only difference is one note. So to truly understand what makes a major chord different from a minor chord, we need to understand how chords are structured.

A chord is a combination of 3 or more notes played at the same time. The notes and intervals between them indicate what the name of the chord is. For example, a C major chord has the notes C, E, and G. The C and E notes have a major 3rd interval, which means that E is four half steps up from C. Here’s a blog that explains intervals a little deeper. The interval between E and G is a minor 3rd, which means there is only three half steps between the notes. So a major chord is formed from a minor 3rd interval on top of a major 3rd interval. It looks like this:

C Db D Eb E F Gb G

A minor chord is built very similarly. There is only a one note difference that makes a major chord minor. The note that determines the chord is the middle note, also known as the 3rd of the chord. To make a major chord minor, we need to flat the 3rd. This means that in a C major chord, the E note would become an Eb (E Flat). This lowers the note by one half step and changes the intervals that make up the chord. So now the chord has a major 3rd interval stacked on top of a minor 3rd interval. This chord looks like this:

C Db D Eb E F Gb G

So, like I said before, the main difference between a major and minor chord is one note. To be specific, it is the 3rd of the chord. To elaborate a little more, a chord can be referred to as root, 3rd, 5th. In a C major scale, the root is C, the 3rd is E, and the 5th is G. The E note is called the 3rd because it is the 3rd step in the C major scale (shown below), and G is the 5th step in the scale.

When I was learning how to build chords during my college classes my professors told us that we needed to relearn our ABC’s. When he said that, I was quite confused. It’s not like I’m going to forget how to say the alphabet, unless something horrible happens to me. What he meant by this is that I should learn how to say the letters of chords in order. He wrote this on the board:

ACE

BFD

CEG

DFA

EGB

FAC

GBD

He gave the class the challenge to read this off and anyone that could read it faster than 30 seconds, without looking at it and without mistakes, would get extra credit. Easy enough, right? Well……. no one received any extra credit. I think the closest was 35 seconds. We would get our tongues twisted or we would forget the order and screw up. So, we practiced learning how to say these chords like this and it really helped. Since this was a class, there were tests, and being able to quickly recall what notes were in what chords really helped. I'm thankful that I learned this, because now when I’m talking with people, I don’t have to stop and think about how to build a chord.

Understanding how chords are structured is fairly simple, but it might take a little while to understand completely. Let me know if you have any questions or need anymore clarification.