Serious answers only please: What is the difference in music between?!
Question: a major and a minor key? What could I listen to to get to know?
I would like to learn as I don't know much about it as you can tell. Thanks
Answers: a major and a minor key? What could I listen to to get to know?
I would like to learn as I don't know much about it as you can tell. Thanks
It's got nothing to do with whether it's "high" or "low", or the number of sharps or flats in the scale,....The minor of any scale has a flattened third note. Basically, every scale has a certain set of intervals between the notes. In the major scale, this is: tone, tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, semitone (the eigth note being the same as the first note of the scale, but an octave highter)....so for the scale C Major, the notes are C, D, E, F, G, A, B (the only major scale to include no natural flats or sharps). Any minor scale has a flattened third note, so in the C Minor, it's would be C, D, E-Flat (which is also D-Sharp), F, G, A, B. It's called a flattened note because it is a semitone lower than the "normal" interval...so it goes tone, tone, semitone, tone, etc. Think of the white and black notes on a piano keyboard. The interval between each white note is a tone, the interval between a white note and the black note next to it is a semitone (half a tone). When the notes of the scale are used to make up a chord, the third is flattened in the same way...in a C-Major chord, you use the first, third and fifth notes of the scale - so C, E, and G. In the C Minor chord, you play the same, flattened third as in the C Minor scale...so C, E-Flat (D-Sharp), G. This means that the "middle" note in the chord is half a tone (one black note) lower than the "middle" note in the Major chord...this means that it sounds more melancholy and "sad". The same intervals between the notes always apply, but the actual notes vary depending on the scale (and hence the key)...so in C Major it's C, E, G...in D Major, it's D, F, G-Sharp, etc, and so on. The intervals between the notes of the Major scale gives the well-known "Doh-Ray-Mi-Fah-So-La-Ti-Doh" scale. The "Mi" of the Minor scale is half a tone lower. For a prime example of the feel/sound of the minor chord, listen to the first arpeggiated (picked) chord of "House of the Rising Sun"!
major - sounds and feels happy, summery sound I always think
minor - sounds mournful and sad, distant sometimes.
ADDED - Major and Minor has no bearing on how many flats or sharps there are - you can have a major key with loads of flats/sharps and a minor key with few and vice versa
I took vocal classes and I think I can answer this for you. In a minor key, you'll notice that the notes on the scales are lower and you will tend to have more flats(Bflat, etc.). Whereas, in a major key, you'll find more sharps and higher pitches(A sharp, etc.).
I hope this helps you.
youd have to listen to something really classical because other wise they arent going to tell you if it is minor or major. also learning to play the different scales is the easiest way to learn the different sounds
from what i can remember when i was learning the violin, major is a low note, minor is a high note, so its basically the difference in scale, major key is the lower scale, minor is the higher scale, try listening to some classical music and you should be able to hear some differences
If you imagine a chord of C - ie, C, E and G, that is a major chord. If you then play the same chord, but play an E flat instead of an E, ie, bring the middle note down by a semitone, then that is a minor chord.
In general, major keys are more cheerful-sounding and jolly (example: Jupiter from Holst's Planet Suite) and minor keys are more melancholy or thoughtful (example Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata)
The best example of the difference you can make by suddenly switching from one to the other I can think of is the end of the Coventry Carol. It's written in a minor key, but the last chord is major.
Hope this helps!
The number of sharps and flats only helps outline what key its in, not if it's going to be "more minor" or "more major".
If something feels soft, sentimental, lonely, sad, bleak, depressing, its generally in a minor key. If it's happy, upbeat, childish, joyful, exuberant, positive, its generally in a major key.
"Joy to the World" is a major song. The first 8 notes are the major scale descending, for instance. Most child-rhymes are in major keys - "eensy bitsy spider", for instance.
Many punk bands play major songs - ever listen to the Ramones? Simple but everything I've heard from them is major. REM's song "Everybody Hurts" is minor, or Soul Asylum's "Runaway Train", or Good Charlotte's "Hold On". A lot of the instrumental tracks backing rap from the early 90's is major... I was just thinking of some of Big Pun's music.
Slipknot and Slayer are minor, in a very dissonant way. Most of the Top 40 dance music you will hear is major. Some types of music go between major and minor - blues is usually minor but not always, and jazz really dances between different flavors of major and minor, consonant and dissonant pretty quickly.
If you were to look at sheet music or a chord chart, the more major chords that a song has the more likely it is to be a major song, and vice versa with minor chords. Many, many, many songs can be played with only two, three, or four chords, and if most of them are major than it's a pretty fair bet that song is major.
I hope that helps.
I would suggest learning how to play an instrument like a guitar or keyboard/piano. That would help you train your ear into understanding the difference.
Saul