What are major and minor chords?:

Answer 1

What do you think is the difference between the two? Listen to a major chord and then a minor chord. Do they make you feel different things? To me, one sounds "nice" or "safe", and one sounds "sour" or "uncomfortable". Can you guess which is which?

From the theory standpoint (which I believe comes after this core "feeling" of the sound), the difference between a major and a minor chord is one note. A chord is usually built around the root, the harmonic, and the tonic. These three notes can be called different things, and some may be familiar to you: another example is the 1, the 3, and the 5. Another is Do, Mi, So.

Basically, what makes a major chord different from a minor chord is a minute change in the 3 (or the mi, or the harmonic, all of which are different names for the same thing). A minor chord flats the 3, or lowers it a half step. Playing a c chord on the piano, this would look like the middle note (in standard voicing) being played a half-step down, or the finger playing E instead playing Eflat (the black key to the immediate left of E.)

Hope this helped! All different types of chords have different "flavors". If you can identify major vs. minor by ear, try seeing if you can identify a 7th or a 6th! Its a superpower!

Answer 2

Major chords are triads built from a root, third and fifth in the scale of the key your playing such as F A C. A minor chord is the same as a major except that the third is lowered a half step or flated such as F Ab C and has more of a melancholy or ballard type sound.

Answer 3

A Major chord is a chord built upon a major third above the root of the chord and a perfect fifth above the root of the chord. For example, C E G is a major chord, where the interval between C and G is a perfect fifth, and the interval between C and E is a major third. You can also attribute the major chord to sounding “happy”, or consonant. The minor chord is built upon a minor third above the root of the chord and a perfect fifth above the root of the chord. For example, C Eb G is a minor chord, where the interval between C and Eb is a minor third, and the interval between C and G is a perfect fifth. You can attribute the minor chord to sounding “sad” or incomplete in some way.