Beginning your studies of music theory by becoming acquainted with both major and minor piano chords is an excellent place to start. They’re quite similar, with all it taking to change a major chord into a minor one being dropping its third note by half steps.
This makes the piece seem darker and more serious; this applies to any key.
Triads
Triads are composed of three notes strung together. Triads can be constructed using any scale and may feature minor, major, diminished, or augmented chords – when an augmented chord occurs, its third and fifth notes are raised higher than normal.
Triads can be created in many different ways; one such approach involves building one from any scale by taking its root, third, and fifth note and creating a diatonic triad from these notes – this form of triad formation is commonly known as diatonic triad.
Use this technique to form other types of chords as well. For instance, to make a diminished triad, take the third and fifth notes of a major scale and add one flat each for B, D, F, and A chords. To remember their spelling easily just remember their key signature or add up all of their sharps or flats.
Inversions
Inversions can help you learn to transition between various chords in a song or chord progression smoothly and efficiently, while simultaneously minimizing hand movement. Switching from major to minor chord requires making a large leap with your finger; but when using inversions it may only require switching chord orders or altering their bass notes (root). These changes fall under voice leading, the idea that changes should be gradual rather than abrupt.
Minor chords offer another advantage that makes them easy to learn: their fingering often matches major ones (fingers 4-2-1 for example). This makes memorizing them straightforward. Furthermore, inversions add another level of depth to triad knowledge, and once mastered you can begin exploring other variations yourself.
Major vs. Minor
Minor chords feature a flattened third that emits much darker tones than their major counterpart. This gives minor chords a melancholy or melancholic sound and often associates them with sad music.
Major chords contain the first, third, and fifth notes of a scale; minor chords use the same triad, with its third note reduced by half step – this gives C minor as an example – instead of major. If you want to create diminished chords then adding sevenths on top creates tension within songs that use them; although not commonly found in popular music.
Minor major seventh chords, which contain both minor thirds and major 7ths, are less commonly used but can create some interesting sounds in songs – it was used extensively during some of Stairway to Heaven’s fantastic guitar riffs, for instance!
Scales
Understanding how minor scales differ is essential to choosing appropriate chord progressions. You need to become familiar with their unique patterns of whole and half steps for this task – for instance, melodic minor scale has a distinct ascending pattern than natural or harmonic minor.
To identify minor scales, begin with your chord root and build from there. For instance, a C minor triad would consist of C-Eb-G; to create diminished chords by lowering one note by two semitones or whole steps – thus producing C-Eb-Gb triad.
Minor seventh (m7) and Minor major seventh (m7) chords, built upon a minor triad with an additional major third, are next in line of extended minor chords. Finally, another extended minor chord family known as Minor elevenths (m11s) based upon minor ninth chords completes this spectrum of extended minor chords.