ChordMeloMelody Generator

Major and minor differ by one note

Major and minor differ only in whether the middle note (the third) is lowered by a semitone.

Chapter 7All chapters

The gap between a bright chord and a dark one is a single semitone. Lower the middle note of the three and the brightness flips.

Chapter five showed that bright and dark come from spacing. The same thing happens inside a chord — and only one note moves.

  • CC (bright)
  • CmCm (dark)
C and Cm. Bottom and top are identical; only the middle note is a semitone apart.Buttons and keys in the diagrams play sound. Check your volume first.

The outer notes, C and G, are the same in both. The middle one is E in C and E♭ in Cm. One semitone, and that much difference in feeling.

In plain wordsThe third (the middle note)

The third note counting up from the bottom of a triad. It decides bright or dark, which makes it the note that gives a chord its character.

See which key actually moves

C major. The orange key is the middle note, E. Played together it sounds bright.Buttons and keys in the diagrams play sound. Check your volume first.
C minor. The middle note has moved one key left, onto the black key E♭.Buttons and keys in the diagrams play sound. Check your volume first.

One key moved, and only to its neighbour. Knowing that a difference this small separates "a bright song" from "an aching one" makes chord symbols suddenly worth reading.

  • Built major (C, F, G)

    C | F | G | C

  • Built minor (Cm, Fm, G)

    Cm | Fm | G | Cm

The same shape of progression, once built from major chords and once from minor.Buttons and keys in the diagrams play sound. Check your volume first.

Generate over the minor progression. Same note count, different feeling — compare it against what you made in part one.

Generate over the minor progression
The one thing to remember

The middle note decides bright or dark. Lower it and you have minor; put it back and you have major. Nothing else changes.