MandoSimian

Black Dots and Flight Patterns for Mandolin Players

  • Home
  • About This Site
  • Music Theory
    • Chords
    • Scales, Modes, Tonality
    • Scarpology
    • All Articles on Music Theory
  • Mando Specifics
  • Sitemap
  • Contact Us
You are here: Home / Music Theory / Scales, Modes, Tonality / Major and Minor Tonalities

Major and Minor Tonalities

August 26, 2012 By stevehorn

Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine in Major Key followed by the same in a minor key.
(Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine in Major Key followed by the same in a minor key.)

We hear nearly all tonal music (particularly Western tonal music) in either a major or minor key. The home base of any key is the tonic triad made up of scale degrees 1, 3, and 5. What makes the key sound major or minor is whether the third scale degree is a major or minor third in relation to the tonic or home pitch or scale degree 1 (also, assuming the 5th is a perfect 5th as it usually is).

All other scale degrees (2, 4, 6, 7) can have various characteristics, either adhering to a diatonic key or to more exotic harmonic structures (in Western terms) and still leave the key with a major or minor feel. In addition to traditional major and minor, such variations could render any of the Seven Diatonic Modes (or Church Modes), harmonic minor, melodic minor, and a vast array of scales found in music traditions around the world which can have a variety of names dependent upon regions, cultures, and genres.

In Western music, particularly jazz, many such examples are organized for practical application into the:

  • Seven Modes of Harmonic Minor
  • Seven Modes of Melodic Minor
  • Seven Modes of Harmonic Major (a major scale with a lowered second scale degree)

 

 

Filed Under: Scales, Modes, Tonality

Featured Posts

Mandolin: A Prospector’s Dream

About Chords for the Mandolin

Fitting Into the Big Picture

Scales, Modes & Tonality

Gravity and Levity in Music

MandoSimean

Please Contact Us if you have any questions or comments.
Sitemap
MandoLinks
Donate to the MandoSimean

Recent Comments

  • Where This May Lead - MandoSimean on Contact Us
  • Where This May Lead - MandoSimean on Request a Link to Your Site
  • Where This May Lead - MandoSimean on MandoLinks
  • Jazz Chord Theory - MandoSimean on Diminished and Half-Diminished Seven Chords
  • Jazz Chord Theory - MandoSimean on Tetrads – the 6 and 7 chords

rss feed

[footer_backtotop]

Copyright © 2022 · Web Design by Websentia Web Services · Log in