Minor Keys vs Major Keys; What's the Difference Video Lecture | Guitar: Become a Pro (English) - Music

sometimes we have different names for
the exact same thing they actually
aren't the same thing but are pretty
much the same thing like when it comes
to fedora hats versus trilby
supposedly there is a difference the
effect is the same I want to take that
same concept and talk about whether
you're playing in a major key versus a
minor key in the chords and stuff in
there right so we've talked a little bit
about the notes and chords that make up
the major scale I think it's the
absolutely most fundamental
fundamentally important piece of music
theory that you could ever learn pretty
much everything that comes off of you
know a lot of the music period hogbottom
this channel really starts there I'll
link you to a video that goes more in
depth on that but really just kind of
like breeze through it there's seven
notes in the key a key of C major c d e
f g a b c once you think of those as
numbers it can work in absolutely any
heat every one of those seven notes can
become its own chord the first fourth
and fifth notes always become major so
the key to see it one four and five
C half g the second third and six notes
always become minor so that same key D
minor would be to e minor a minor six
six and that seventh one is a diminished
chord right so a lot of really you can
just take that piece that one piece of
information and then just have at it
play your entire musical career just
rockin it out diatonically so to speak
and it'll be cool
again on that video that I made just
talking about the chords in it the most
common question is well what about if
you're in a minor key what if you're
using the minor scale how does that
affect anything well first of all the
minor scale and the major scale are
essentially the same thing that's where
the relative minor comes into play so if
we have those seven notes again one two
three four five six seven that six note
and any key right and we keep C it would
be an a as where the relative minor is
okay so talking about it can kind of
seem like a mouthful sometimes but
really it's really kind of simple right
the sixth note and any key you can
always find by going on a guitar back
three frets so whatever key this is you
can find this relative minor by backing
it up three frets and that major and
minor scale are gonna have the same
notes and the same chords almost okay so
we're gonna get to the
differences in a second Borrelia if we
talk about the key of a-minor right it's
the same notes in the same order just
starting on a hey so instead of c d e f
g a b it's ABCD efg and now there is
kind of a different sound when you play
it and traditionally musicians to be
like okay that's happy versus sad would
be like a very very you know primitive
way to look at something like that
now the chords are all gonna be the same
because you build chords off of just
those seven notes and they're all gonna
be the same but this is where a tonal
center kind of comes into it like am i
playing this in the key of C major is it
in the key of a minor the best way to
find out is if you were to end a
progression or something where would be
the best place to end it so let's say we
have like a like a one five six one
progression in the key of C there'll be
a C G a minor C like
[Music]
it sounds good when you end it on that
see it resolved right if we tried ending
it on a you know it works but it doesn't
really kind of have that finality of
that resolution of a see now if we had
the same thing like let's make a
progression that is heavy on that a
minor but it doesn't even have a C major
chord in it let's do like a like a 6-4
2-6 alright so that would be a minor F
major D minor a minor a minor
[Music]
D minor
[Applause]
[Music]
a minor
then it sounds like it's okay then that
would be a better place any benefit that
that C major kind of forces it into
resolving in major eyes right so when
you're resolved on that we could say
that we're in the key of a minor right
same difference
now in my experience usually the
musicians that I talk to you will always
relate everything back to the major key
so that progression right there even
though there wasn't a C major chord in
that that would still be a 6-4 2-6
progression now if you just switched
everything around and started thinking
about the numbers as a being one which
you could totally do right because an a
minor a would be one you can think of
that as a one F major be a b c d e f a
one six and then what is D minor a b c d
a one six four one progression in minor
and my experience that really doesn't
get used too often i think you know the
five different trains thoughts on that i
have heard other people talk about scale
degrees in minor for sure that's fine i
just think really totally my experience
it's always better to have really
everything back to a major key even if
it isn't in a major scale okay now the
one difference that you will find if it
is in a minor or if it's in a minor key
or resolves on minor there actually is
another chord that is commonly used a
lot and i want to talk about the
dominant chord and a key right we've
talked about this before too but in any
major key the five chord is the dominant
chord right so in the key of c c d e f g
g is the dominant chord becomes a
dominant seven chord right and now
really the whole purpose of that chord
is to bring you back home right so again
let's do uh let's do like a one six five
one progression and see it
she is the five quarter and that five
quart always sets us up to come home
right that's why it's called the
dominant chord because dominates the
chord progression has such now you can
turn it into a dominant seven chord and
does it even more so C major a minor
[Music]
now once you start adding that down to
seven pour it in there
it isn't begging you for resolution it's
like please come home thank God finally
now in the key of a-minor you would
still you can still make a g7 chord with
all those notes right system G a B a D
and an F but it doesn't totally have the
same effect of resolution so even if we
had something like an a minor half back
chord progression we did earlier a minor
g7
you know it has a little bit of that
same thing but it's not totally the same
as the g7 to a seat right and that's all
about the five no one looks at it in any
key the five chord is where that diamond
to seven thing is now let's just flip
everything say we're in a minor same
notes everything is going on well what's
the five of a b c d e so E minor
actually has kind of like a little bit
more of like a pull a gravitational pull
back to a minor right so if we did that
same thing a minor to F to D minor to E
minor right this would be an icky of C a
six four two three six
you can already hear that
[Applause]
[Music]
he minor is leading us back to a minor a
little bit kind of wants to go there now
what we could do is we can make that
minor chord dominant all right so all
that would be is like turn that a minor
into an e7 chord okay so now we're doing
is we're actually introducing a note
that is not in the key of C really or
the key of a minor technically but it
works okay so we're gonna take a minor
and turn it into E 7 which is really an
E major chord with the dominant 7
a flat 7 in it alright so let's take
that same thing a minor major
and that really kind of makes you want
to hit that minor even harder but II 7
is an accord in the key of C when you
think about just using only the notes in
that key to populate chords right so one
way to think of it and again you know
taking caught borrowing cores
introducing other notes from outside of
the key is something that you should
totally be you know thoughtful about
anyways it doesn't mean you have to do
it ever but it gets used all the time
this is one of the most common uses of
that is like a lot of times in the key
of C you'll see an e7 chord right even
if we kind of just avoid the a minor
Ness of a C major progression you know
something like C let's do one for five
and see what
[Music]
that doesn't sound so bad right even
though we're adding that g-sharp note in
that East seventeen
it doesn't sound awful in the key of C
and it pretty much works in fact you
play the C major scale and introduce
that G sharp note C sharp
[Music]
yeah doesn't sound doesn't sound bad I
mean whatever it's just it it sounds how
it sounds so if that's something you
want you can think of e7 as being
another chord in kind of a pool to
choose from in you know those main six
seven chords that you want but
specifically it it works great with the
a minor so what is the difference
between you know a major key and a minor
key that's a great way to look at it is
well practically you know there really
isn't a lot of difference like there
isn't a fedora trilby difference in my
book if you ask me but where it resolves
a tonal Center different things that you
can do adding that dominant 7 chord into
into the fold
it's kind of just one way to look at it
ok so I think this stuff is really kind
of kind of fun to just experiment with
just take other things you can kind of
go you know further that it's like well
maybe I could take every minor chord in
that key right remember we see we said
the other two minor chords were D minor
and E minor and it's like well maybe I
could add their dominant 7th from there
so instead of thinking like okay I'm
just going to like it closer key to kind
of take these maybe you can start
thinking on a chord by chord basis and
then you're kind of thinking less
diatonically and maybe just more kind of
just generally musically as far as like
the other things available to you right
so you can always find any single note 5
notes away from where you are and again
five notes away really is just you know
when you go through the major scale I've
noticed let's say we want to have
something pull us closer to the D minor
in that a minor half d minor a minor
chord well let's look at D right 1 2 3 4
5 ok so a is a fifth of D maybe I can
throw it a 7 to kind of throw me closer
to that D minor when I when I get there
to kind of make a little bit more of an
impact make that D minor more impactful
because as it stands we just have a
minor
half D minor hey hey D minor is kind of
just it's there to an okay job it's
really just kind of taking up space when
you really think about it but maybe
between then half and that D minor
I can throw D minors a seven to kind of
partner up with a little bit and we've
got like a minor
[Music]
right that a seven to that d-minor is
something that maybe could be
interesting to you right it's just all
about experimentation these seven back
today so you know when you're writing
for progressions when you're just
playing around even if you kind of want
a solo and like build tension or build
some kind of suspense and try to push
something somewhere I really think
thinking about where a chords dominant
kind of partner chord exists whether
it's in that key whether it's in the
minor key that you're kind of working
with the relative minor kiyah
well there's any kind of single serving
chord that you want to kind of put a
little bit more impact on and kind of
push something in a certain way I think
the dominant seventh chords are really
one of the one of the easiest ways to
kind of start jam in that idea home
right
so anyways hopefully that was helpful to
you if you have any questions or
comments hit me up in the comment
section Instagram Twitter or the website
and it will then I will talk to you all
soon
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