While enjoying the sounds of music, we experience various emotions, sad or joyful. It is not surprising that a cheerful or, on the contrary, gloomy melody can influence our mood. Big role The most common musical scales used in this are major and minor. How are they different from each other? Let's try to figure it out.
Definition
Major(from Latin major– “larger”) - a musical mode whose chord is built on a major third; characterized by a predominantly cheerful, joyful tone of sound.
Minor(from Latin minor– “minor”) - a musical mode whose chord is built on a minor third; usually sounds sad and dejected.
Comparison
The aesthetic contrast between minor and major is one of the most important in music. Minor is the opposite of major. According to European musical tradition, sounds are separated using tones and semitones. Due to the physical characteristics of sounds and the physiological structure of the human ear, even something as small as a semitone, due to which a major third differs from a minor third, creates a huge contrast in the perception of sound. In most cases, major chords are perceived by listeners as happy, while minor chords are perceived as sad. Do you remember what Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March” in major key sounds like? Do you think that all marches are usually upbeat and energetic? This is not always the case: for example, Chopin’s “Funeral March” is written in a minor key, and therefore creates a tragic, mournful feeling when listening. Major has a pronounced “positive” connotation, and minor has a pronounced “negative” connotation, which are usually defined by a person as “joy” and “sadness.” Moreover, surprisingly, the emotional coloring of chords practically does not depend on changes in timbre or volume of their constituent sounds. In addition, it also happens that the major turns out to be able to express tragic, lyrical feelings, and the minor – bright, joyful (for example, many American blues are written in major, and the Russian rollicking “Gypsy” is in minor).
Also (by analogy) in Russian, a major is a cheerful, cheerful, elevated state of mind, and a minor is a dull, sad, mournful, depressed state.
Conclusions website
- In music, a major chord is built on a major third, and a minor chord on a minor third.
- In both minor and major scales, the order of intervals (tones and semitones) differs.
- It is believed that major has a so-called light sound, and minor has a dark, gloomy sound. This sound contrast is best perceived by ear.
- Major causes positive emotions, that is, joy, minor – negative, such as sadness, despondency, grief.
- Major also refers to a cheerful, cheerful, upbeat mood, while minor is often referred to as a depressed, sad, despondent state.
In music, there are two main musical modes: major and minor. Let's talk in more detail about what a major scale is, what a major scale is and how a major scale differs from a minor scale, as well as how this word is used in modern slang.
What is a major: definition
Major is a set of sounds of a musical instrument, implying a cheerful and cheerful tonality. This formulation is due to the fact that all music is inherently created to convey human feelings and emotions. The composer who composes a certain musical composition or symphony is based on his feelings and puts them into the music.
Development process musical composition quite complex and often intertwined with the experimental method of selecting the necessary sounds. Each note recorded is followed by a heavy selection of subsequent notes and an attempt to harmonize them with each other so that the music sounds pleasant to the human ear.
Major mode
Due to the fact that the set of sounds is limitless, and the human ear is capable of perceiving sounds in the range from 20 to 20,000 Hz, it became necessary to classify certain simple sets tonality. The main ones that can be played on any musical instrument, are major and minor modes. It turns out that the major mode is a sequence of any composition that, on a psychological level, evokes in a person associations with a cheerful and cheerful mood. Also, any composition can be recorded in a minor mode to get the opposite effect of sound and perception on a psychological level. A minor scale is a scale whose sounds form a small and minor triad.
Differences between major and minor modes
Any set of notes can be written as a major or minor scale. That is, any musical composition consisting of a certain set of notes can be played in both a minor and a major sound.
The difference between a major mode and a minor one is that between the second tone and the first in minor there is a minor third, and in major there is a major third. In simple terms, major-minor is a harmonious expression of the states of the soul - joy and sadness.
Musical term in everyday life
In youth slang, the word major is used in a context indicating rich people living in prosperity and abundance. It is believed that people who have great material wealth get almost everything they want. And the person who gets what he wants is in joy and euphoria. And vice versa: people who do not have a large amount material goods, they do not always get what they want and therefore are not always in a state of joy and pleasure.
We continue our series of articles on music theory, and today we will talk about what mode, tonality and intervals are in music.
In the last article, we studied musical notation and saw what music looks like in general. in writing, and which note is responsible for which sound. To make it easier for you to get involved in this lesson, let’s remember with you what the scale looks like:
What you see in the picture above is the C major scale. We will talk about why it is called “C major” a little later. And now we will talk about gamma.
Gamma is a scale whose steps are one tone or semitone apart from each other. Usually musicians play scales to warm up and develop finger motor skills.
The degrees of the scale from the first to the seventh are numbered with Roman numerals.
Each fret degree has its own name:
- Stage I – tonic (T)
- Stage II – descending input sound
- III stage – mediant (middle)
- IV stage – subdominant (S)
- V stage – dominant (D)
- VI stage – submediant (lower mediant)
- VII stage – ascending introductory sound
You probably understand that notes in music have a certain relationship with each other. Therefore, you cannot simply strike the strings of a guitar or collapse on the keys of a piano to create a melody that caresses the ear. And first of all, this very relationship is expressed in the fact that in music there are sounds that seem to stand out from the general mass of notes. Such sounds are called sustainable and often complete the melody.
But even among stable sounds there is a leader - the tonic. It is the main support of the entire melody. In the example below you can listen to the melody without the tonic:
It seems like something is missing, doesn't it? I want to finish the melody.
And, of course, in contrast to steady sounds, there are unstable. Unstable ones gravitate towards stable sounds and strive to connect with them. And the transition of an unstable sound to a stable one is permission.
So, you and I understand that there is a certain pattern according to which music is built. And this pattern is called okay. The mode is always the basis of any musical composition and it is it that organizes all the sounds in music and gives the melody character.
To continue our story about modes, we need to digress a little and tell you about intervals.
is a simultaneous or sequential combination of sounds. A simultaneous interval is called harmonic, and a sequential interval is called melodic. The bottom sound of an interval is its base, and the top sound is its top. In the example, the left interval is harmonic, and the right is melodic.
Melodic intervals can be either ascending (that is, read from bottom to top) or descending (that is, vice versa). Harmonic intervals are read only from bottom to top.
Intervals that form within one octave are called simple. And there are eight of them in total:
- Prima
- Second
- Third
- Quart
- Quint
- Sixth
- Seventh
- Octave
But all simple intervals are also divisible. We remember that the distance between adjacent steps can be equal to a tone or semitone. It follows that some intervals can be of two types:
- Pure prima – 0 tones
- Minor second – 1/2 tone
- Major second – 1 tone
- Minor third – 1 and 1/2 tones
- Major third – 2 tones
- Clear quart – 2 and 1/2 tones
- Increased quart – 3 tones
- Diminished fifth – 3 tones
- Perfect fifth – 3 and 1/2 tones
- Small sixth – 4 tones
- Major sixth – 3 and 1/2 tones
- Minor seventh – 5 tones
- Major seventh – 5 and 1/2 tones
- Pure octave – 6 tones
Let's not overload you with details about intervals. Let us only note that intervals are divided into consonant and dissonant. Consonance is a merging, consonant sound. Dissonance is a sharp, non-merging sound, or simply “unpleasant”.
Consonant intervals:
1. A very perfect consonance:
- Pure prima
- Pure octave
2. Perfect consonance:
- Clean quart
- Perfect fifth
3. Imperfect consonance:
- Minor third
- Major third
- Small sixth
- Big sixth
All other intervals are considered dissonant intervals.
Now let's get back to the frets. The modes are different, but we will look at the most basic ones: major and minor.
(in literal translation - a larger mode) is a mode in which stable sounds form a major (large) triad, that is, a consonance that consists of three sounds. The sounds of a major triad are arranged in thirds: between the lower and middle sounds there is a major one, and between the middle and upper sounds there is a small one. A perfect fifth is formed between the upper and lower. A major triad that is built on the tonic (that is, on the first degree of the scale) is a tonic triad.
In this mode, unstable sounds are located between stable ones. The major scale consists of seven steps, and the sequential scale of the scale will be the scale that we talked about above.
In the major scale, the intervals between degrees are arranged as follows: tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone.
Minor scale(minor mode) is a mode whose sustained sounds form a minor triad. A minor triad consists of a minor third between the lower and middle degrees, and a major third between the middle and upper.
In the minor scale, the intervals are: tone, semitone, tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone.
By ear, minor and major modes are quite easy to distinguish from each other. If the melody sounds cheerful and energetic, then it is a major scale, but if you hear a sad and smooth melody, then it is a minor scale.
Key– this is the height at which the tonic of the fret is located. The name of the key corresponds to the name of its mode, for example: C major, D minor, etc.
Suppose you decided to sing this or that song, but it turned out to be too low for your voice. Therefore, we need to rewrite the melody in a higher key. To do this, you need to rewrite all the notes to the required number of tones higher. But it is worth considering that there are tonalities, and going beyond them is tantamount to creating dissonance. If you are interested in how to transfer a melody from one key to another, write about it in the comments, and we will discuss this topic in detail in the next article.
There is a lot of variety in music frets. By ear it is easy to distinguish Russian ditties from Georgian songs, eastern music from Western music, etc. This difference in melodies and their moods is due to the mode used. The most widely used are the major and minor modes. In this chapter we will look at the major scale.
Major mode
Lad, the stable sounds of which form a major triad is called major. Let us immediately explain what was said. A triad is already a chord, more about it a little later, but for now, by triad we mean 3 sounds, taken either simultaneously or sequentially. A major triad is formed by sounds whose intervals are thirds. Between the lower sound and the middle one there is a major third (2 tones); between the middle and upper sounds there is a minor third (1.5 tones). Example of a major triad:
Figure 1. Major triad
A major triad with a tonic at its base is called a tonic triad.
The major mode consists of seven sounds, which represent a certain sequence major and minor seconds. Let us designate the major second as “b.2” and the minor second as “m.2”. Then the major scale can be represented as follows: b.2, b.2, m.2, b.2, b.2, b.2, m.2. A sequence of sounds with this arrangement of steps is called natural major scale, and the mode is in natural major. Generally speaking, a scale is the orderly arrangement of the sounds of a scale in height (from tonic to tonic). The sounds that make up a scale are called degrees. Scale levels are indicated by Roman numerals. Do not confuse them with the steps of the scale - they have no designations. The figure below shows the numbered degrees of the major scale.
Figure 2. Major scale degrees
The steps have not only a digital designation, but also an independent name:
Stage I: tonic (T);
Stage II: descending input sound;
Stage III: mediant (middle);
Stage IV: subdominant (S);
Stage V: dominant (D);
Stage VI: submediant (lower mediant);
Stage VII: ascending introductory sound.
Stages I, IV and V are called major stages. The remaining steps are secondary. Introductory sounds gravitate towards tonic (strive towards resolution).
The degrees I, III and V are stable, they form a tonic triad.
Briefly about the main thing
So, a major mode is a mode in which the sequence of sounds forms the following sequence: b.2, b.2, m.2, b.2, b.2, b.2, m.2. Let us remind you once again: b.2 - major second, represents a whole tone: m.2 - minor second, represents a semitone. The sequence of sounds of the major scale is shown in the figure:
Figure 3. Natural major scale intervals
The figure indicates:
- b.2 - major second (whole tone);
- m.2 - small second (semitone);
- The number 1 indicates a whole tone. Perhaps this makes the diagram easier to read;
- The number 0.5 indicates a semitone.
Results
We became acquainted with the concept of “mode” and examined the major mode in detail. Of all the names of the steps, we will most often use the main ones, so their names and locations need to be remembered.
Musical mode- another concept from music theory, with whom we will meet. Mode in music is a system of relations between stable and unstable sounds and consonances, which works for a certain sound effect.
There are quite a lot of modes in music, now we will consider only the two most common (in European music) - major and minor. You have already heard these names, and you have also heard their banal decodings such as major - a cheerful, life-affirming and joyful mode, and minor - sad, elegiac, soft.
These are only approximate characteristics, but in no case are labels - music in each of the musical modes can express any feelings: for example, tragedy in a major key or some bright feelings in a minor key (you see, it’s the other way around).
Major and minor - the main modes in music
So let's analyze the major and minor modes. The concept of mode is closely related to scales. The major and minor scales consist of seven musical steps (that is, notes) plus the last, eighth step repeats the first.
The difference between major and minor lies precisely in the relationship between the degrees of their scales. These steps are spaced from one another by a distance of either a whole tone or a semitone. In major, these relationships will be as follows: tone-tone semitone tone-tone-tone semitone(easy to remember - 2 tones semitone 3 tones semitone), in minor – tone semitone tone-tone semitone tone-tone(tone semitone 2 tones semitone 2 tones). Let’s look at the picture again and remember:
Now let's look at both musical modes specific example. For clarity, let’s build a major and minor scale from the note before.
You can see that there is a significant difference in the notation of major and minor. Play these examples on instruments - you will find a difference in the sound itself. Let me make one small digression: if you do not know how tones and halftones are calculated, then refer to the materials of these articles: and.
Properties of musical modes
Mode in music exists for a reason, it performs certain functions, and one of these functions is regulating the relationship between stable and unstable steps. For major and minor, stable degrees are the first, third and fifth (I, III and V), unstable - the second, fourth, sixth and seventh (II, IV, VI and VII). The melody begins and ends with steady steps if it is written in a major or minor mode. Unstable sounds always tend towards stable sounds.
The first step is of particular importance - it has a name tonic. Stable steps together form tonic triad, this triad is an identifier musical mode.
Other musical modes
The major and minor scales in music are not the only options for scales. In addition to them, there are many other modes characteristic of one or another musical cultures or artificially created by composers. For example, pentatonic scale- a five-step mode in which the role of tonic can be played by any of its steps. The pentatonic scale is extremely widespread in China and Japan.
Let's summarize. We defined the concept, learned the structure of the scales of major and minor modes, and divided the steps of the scales into stable and unstable.
Did you remember that tonic is basic level of musical mode, basic sustained sound? Great! You've done a good job, now you can have a little fun. Look at this cartoon joke.
