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Before we talk about the difference between major and minor chords it’s important to have a talk over what a chord is.

It is a combination of three voices that creates a certain musical impression. In this article we’re going to talk about the difference between major and minor chords, theoretically speaking, and about the sound they create.

Major and Minor Chords

In order to define a major chords we have to be familiar with the name of two intervals. If a chord is a combination of three voices an interval is basically the distance between two voices.

If the distance between the lowest note of the interval and the upper note is of 2 tones – you’re playing a major third.

If the distance between the lowest note of the interval and the upper note is of 1 1/2 tone – you’re playing a minor third.

We’re going to use both these intervals to create the major and minor chords.

Chords can be played in various positions but we’re going to play major and minor chords the root position in this piano lesson. What do I mean by that? Well, The letter that states the chord name should be the lowest voice in the chord.

If we play a C major chord for example, we already know C would be the first out of three voices in the chord.

What would be the next two? That’s quite easy. You should follow the following formulas.

Major Chord = Major 3rd + Minor 3rd

Minor Chord = Minor 3rd + Major 3rd

So here’s something interesting; It’s the first interval of the chord that defines the character of the chord. If a chord starts with a major third it will always be some kind of a major chord (Even if it has 4 voices or more).

Same goes for the minor chord.

So if we take C as the root note and would like to create a C major chord we would get: C-E-G.The distance between C and E is of 2 tones and then 1 1/2 between E-G.

C minor would be C-Eb-G. We switched the order of the intervals simply by lowering the middle note in half a tone. Now we’ve got 1 1/2 tones between C and Eb and 2 tones between Eb and G.

You can find a free piano chord chart of all major chords in here. There’s a free minor piano chord chart in here as well.

And the sound? Well, the major chords are often interpreted as happy or optimistic chords while their melancholic brothers come in the form of a minor triad. It is not written in stone but when understanding that a major chord derives from a major scale (which is often used in bright and joyful pieces) helps to realize the difference between these two chords.

Wonder how they derive from these scale? Well, A C major scale is built out of the following note: C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C. If you start building the first chord degree from C major in thirds you play the C note, skip the D to E, then skip the F note to G. Altogether you get the C-E-G.

Do the same with C minor which has these note: C-D-Eb-F-G-Ab-Bb-C and you’ll get the notes C-Eb-G.Play both this scales to review their character and you’ll understand how the chord is connected to its scale.

So to conclude, both the major and minor chords share the same intervals only the major chord starts with a major third while the minor chord starts with a minor third. The major chord in considered to be more optimistic than the minor chord which is often interpreted as the melancholic one.

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The minor scale is a simple pattern of whole tones and half tones that must be followed when we play from any key. If we wanted to play say the A minor scale we would just hit all the white keys starting from an A key up to the next A key. If only it was that simple.

The process of pressing all the white keys from A to the next A is just the natural minor in A. There exists other types of minor scales such as harmonic and melodic. I find that melodic is the hardest of the three.

Expanding upon what is a whole tone and half tone, I can make it a little more clearer. A half tone is when we play from one key to the next. There are usually 88 keys on the keyboard and they are black or white. If for instance we hit the C key and then play C#/Bb we have played a half tone. It is quite simple. A whole tone is just two half tones. A whole tone is like playing from C to the next D key.

Now that we have understood what tones are, I will explain to you the patterns that we must learn when we learn how to play piano. The patterns are as such:

Natural Minor: W, H, W, W, H, W, W
Harmonic Minor: W, H, W, W, H, W, H
Melodic Minor: W, H, W, W, W, W, H

I have denoted a whole tone as W and a half tone as H.

Going into a little detail a harmonic minor is similar to a natural minor but the seventh note is raised by a half tone. In the case of a melodic minor the sixth and seventh tones of a natural minor are raised by half a tone. There is a slight twist in the melodic minor in that we play the minor naturally on the way down the scale. Only on the way up do we follow the pattern of W, H, W, W, W, W, H.

In the case of a melodic, we can think of it as two tetrachords with whole tone in the middle.

Minor tetrachord: whole tone, half tone and whole tone
Major tetrachord: whole, whole and then half

When we first learn how to play scales in minor I suggest we learn the natural pattern first. After we have mastered that we learn the harmonic and then the melodic last. Remember that the key to playing the scales is loads of practise. Practise it for an hour or so a day and get used to the pattern. You need to commit the patterns to memory and hopefully get them into our muscle memory.

Learning how to play piano requires us to start small and build our skills up till we get to a point where we can play a whole piano piece. I recommend that people use a metronome when playing the scales. A metronome helps you keep the correct tempo as you play the scales. A key mistake that lot of beginners make is playing at the wrong tempo or a mixed tempo.

Mastering the major and minor scales is necessary before we move on to playing chords. I believe that chords will come naturally once we know our scales properly. There is no substitute for practise. The key to being a successful piano player is to practise. Throw in a few hours of practise when you can and touch up on your scales.

In conclusion, the theory behind minor scales has been discussed in detail in this article. We have learnt all about the three types of scales in minor. The major scale is a lot easier than the minor one. We should first learn the major scale and then move on to learning the minor.

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