Gracie Abrams has quickly established herself on the sad-girl pop scene with her emotive vocals and heartbreaking songs, leading to the release of her debut EP Minor in 2020.
A minor chord is created from a major chord by adding an altered third note that’s been flattened, creating something darker and heavier than its source material.
Minor Triad
Minor triads are used in many styles of music and should be familiar to you no matter the kind of basslines you intend on playing. Their basic fingerings are similar to major triads, but their lower note has an altered tone such as #11 and b9. This creates some interesting altered tones like #11 and b9.
Triads can be divided into five main categories, major, minor, diminished and augmented triads; each has their own set of scale degrees and qualities that correspond with them; major triads have an exact fifth between the bottom and middle notes while minor ones use minor thirds instead.
Triads may also be inverted, which means their roots are moved upward an octave towards the end of a chord’s inversion. While this won’t change its character or feel, it can alter how a song sounds. Chords are typically notated by notating their root notes followed by an appropriate letter representing their quality (with lowercase “m” marking minor triads).
Major Triad
Major and minor triads form the fundamental harmonic building blocks of tonal music. Consisting of three notes drawn from any given scale (first, third, fifth), these triads make up major or minor chords with either an unflattened third note (in case of minor chord) or flattened (for minor). They serve as the basis of all chord types.
To create a major chord, play the first note of your scale before adding in third and fifth notes from that scale. To form a minor chord, just lower third note by half step – for more help on this topic, listen to music that uses major and minor chords!
Beach Boys classic “California Girls” utilizes an A minor chord progression. These minor chords lend melancholic quality to the song while creating tension, so understanding these progressions will enable you to write your own songs or compose chord progressions for other genres of music – giving your songs their own distinct sound and adding interest and an edge!
Major Scale
Chords are the foundation of Western music. Learning more about major and minor chords will expand your ears, technique, interpretation of songs, as well as develop your improvising abilities. A major chord consists of a major third followed by two minor thirds while its counterpart, the minor chord, has the inverse pattern – two minor thirds followed by major thirds.
There is also a major seventh chord, composed by taking a triad and adding the major 7th degree of the scale as its fifth note – notated as C maj 7 or CM7. Conversely, there exists a minor major seventh chord that works the opposite of this major chord and notated with Cm7.
Gracie Abrams, daughter of J.J. Abrams and 23 years old now, was once overcome with anxiety when it came to performing onstage as a kid – playing living room concerts to punish her family until finally making music of her own and writing songs. Today she is an emerging star of indie pop music who recently had the honor of opening for Taylor Swift on her Eras tour this summer.
Minor Scale
Gracie Abrams of Los Angeles singer-songwriter Minor, released her seven song debut EP on July 14th to great acclaim. This debut showcases Abrams’ soft vocals and harmonious arrangements while touching upon topics such as heartache and troubled relationships.
At its core, determining whether a chord is major or minor lies the third note. Major chords always contain this note in their compositions while minor scales or chords use flattened third notes (lowered half steps) instead of whole notes to give their music their somber mood and make up minor scales or chords.
Play this song on either guitar or piano to master minor chords gracie abrams and observe their effect on changing mood and song interpretation. Once you know your chords inside out, experiment by altering one third note at a time until finding what best works with the overall song structure.