Learning to build minor chords within a major scale is essential to expanding your musical vocabulary and creating emotion-provoking music. Understanding their effects is at the core of creating great tunes!
One small change to a chord can create entirely different feelings; that difference being its third note – which delineates minor from major chords.
Root Note
Root notes of major scales are usually designated by letters following numbers (1, V etc), but this doesn’t matter too much when it comes to chords. For instance, if the root note of a C major chord is G then any chord from its key signature (such as B dim or D7) could also be played on top.
Major scale music is often associated with feelings of happiness and hopefulness. A prime example is Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, which features major chords throughout and gives off an optimistic vibe.
Minor chords are constructed similarly to major triads; to identify one, simply count the semitones between notes; for instance, from C to E is two semitones and D to G three – making it easy to differentiate a C dim from D7 chord.
Third Note
In a major scale, the third note can often determine whether a chord has a minor or major sound. C major has two sharps (F# and C#) while A natural minor contains four flats (B, E, G and A).
As with other chord progressions, the third note determines whether a triad is major or minor. Triads composed of do, fa, and sol (1, 4, and 5) are considered major – they’re represented with capital letters as their root note; those constructed from re, mi, and la (1, 4, 5, etc) are represented with lowercase “mi”.
Once you learn this pattern, the first three notes and chords for any major scale in every key will be similar, enabling you to play any major chord in any key on guitar. Intervals refer to distance between notes rather than their contents – this makes playing any major chord on any key much simpler!
Fifth Note
One of the simplest ways to conceptualize major and minor chords is via the Circle of Fifths. Every major key has an equivalent minor key with its own key signature; their relative tonic note will always lie three half steps below its starting point (in this instance C).
As you progress clockwise around the circle, each interval becomes smaller by half a step until finally reaching a perfect 5th above root which goes from C to G – hence why most piano keyboards feature black and white keys with this pattern in mind.
Minor chords’ melancholic sound results from their lower notes being reduced in volume, as is often used to signify sadness. Songs written for happy occasions tend to feature more major chords while sad songs utilize more minor ones for reasons that remain unknown and could include cultural interpretation of music over time.
Seventh Note
Minor seventh chords differ from their major seventh counterparts in that they can be constructed on any scale degree; unlike major seventh chords which must contain notes at their root note to function. Therefore, minor seventh chords can serve as either added sixth or diminished seventh chords depending on which notes comprise them.
Minor 7 chords have an intriguing sound that is often associated with darkness or noir; likening their dissonant 7th to the perfect 5th is likening its shine to that of a dagger in a dark night, so to speak.
Minor Major 7 chord is often referred to as the James Bond chord or spy chord because its distinctive sound can be found in numerous spy movies. Furthermore, this chord also adds richness and texture to Romantic-era piano music and jazz; hence its prevalence in classic Beach Boys songs like California Girls! Additionally, this chord provides an ideal way to start exploring various minor chord sounds.