As part of learning chords, it is vitally important to distinguish between major and minor. They have different emotional associations as well as producing very distinct sounds.
Consider these two situations:
Root
Most major chords consist of three notes that combine to form a triad. A triad is made up of the root note, followed by major third and perfect fifth notes stacked upon one another; for instance a C major chord contains C as its root note, E for major third and G for perfect fifth (see diagram above).
All these notes come together to form the major key, creating an upbeat sounding chord. Beginners usually start by learning major keyboard chords.
Every chord has a distinct quality that can be identified by its spacing between individual notes – this spacing is known as the chord quality and music composers employ various types such as Major, Dominant, Diminished etc to identify specific tones within their music compositions.
Major Third
The major third is an interval that gives chords their major quality, consisting of four half steps or semitones and is one of the most frequently employed intervals alongside unison, octave and perfect fifth.
Major chord progressions generally seem happier to Western ears due to this interval, which also belongs to Ionian music mode – often associated with positivity and happiness.
An intriguing fact of musical practice is how even an otherwise happy chord progression can sound sad when combined with minor thirds, due to the way minor chords evoke emotions such as sadness or tension. Therefore, understanding both major and minor chords when playing music will add variety and emotional depth to songs you create.
Perfect Fifth
Building major chords requires an interval known as a perfect fifth. This refers to two white keys (or white notes in any clef) separated by five semitones – in other words, C and G on a piano are five semitones apart and constitute a perfect fifth interval.
F and E also are perfect fifths, making chord construction simple in any scale.
Major chords can feature flattened or sharpened notes that alter its interval relationships, but it still forms a triad composed of one root note, major third, and perfect fifth notes – making it very straightforward to craft power chords or other major chords with great sounding results.
Major Triad
The major triad is one of the most iconic chords found in Western music, comprising three notes separated by major and minor thirds and used across genres. It boasts an upbeat, cheerful sound.
Each triad can be classified as either major, minor, diminished, or augmented based on its interval structure. To evaluate chord quality we look at the distance between root and 3rd (and 5th).
A C major triad can be described by its initial letters: C E G. This chord features two major thirds and a perfect fifth; when notated harmonically or written out on lead sheets it will typically be denoted with either “C”, “CM”, CD”, or Cmaj”.
Minor Triad
Unbeknownst to most musicians, all the notes of a major scale can form triads. Any triad based around the home note (major), do, fa, sol (1, 4, and 5), and diminished (re, mi and la) is major; anything constructed using these three notes as its base (minor or diminished).
Minor triads are one of the four basic chord types you should know for guitar playing, like their major counterparts, composed of three notes and featuring a flatted third note – its main difference from major being its use as diminished chord, making it less stable. Most commonly found in jazz music.