What is the Difference Between Major and Minor Chords? A Complete Guide for Beginners

Because I know the internet likes a quick answer, I’ll briefly explain what the difference is between a major and a minor chord right now. However, I will elaborate on the answer in much more detail throughout this post, so I hope you decide to stick around for it.

The simple answer to what differentiates a major chord from a minor chord is the middle note in the chord. Minor chords have a flatted 3rd (keep reading to learn about intervals). This means the middle note is a half step lower than its major counterpart. And this lends minor chords a sad or more haunting feel.

If that didn’t make any sense to you, please read on and I will explain everything in detail.

• If you are a complete beginner, this post is for you!
• What is the definition of a chord?
• To understand the difference between major and minor chords, we need to understand what an interval is
• A brief discussion on musical scales
• Building a C major chord
• Building a C minor chord
• What is the difference between major and minor chords?
• What to do next?

If you are a complete beginner, this post is for you!

This post is aimed at those who are completely new to playing the guitar and are confused about the difference between major and minor chords. I’m here to answer that, and just to be clear, this theory also applies to many other instruments such as the bass guitar, banjo, or piano to name a few.

The important thing is that you gain a solid understanding of the theory behind what makes a chord major or minor. Having a solid understanding of that will open the door to a deeper understanding of more advanced chords such as the augmented and diminished types.

But for now, we’ll take it one step at a time and focus on the two types of chords that ninety-nine percent of beginners learn first.

To understand the difference between major chords and minor chords, we need to have a solid definition of what a chord is. I know you probably have a general idea of what a chord is, but I’m going to put it into words to make absolutely sure we’re all on the same page.

What is the definition of a chord?

A chord is simply a combination of three notes played at the same time. I would have used the term “in unison”, but that phrase can have a different meaning in musical terms.

Now I realize some of you out there, specifically those who are past the beginner stage, might point out a couple of inconsistencies with that definition.

First, a chord can be played arpeggiated, meaning the chord can be played as a series of ascending or descending notes as opposed to them all being played at the same time.

And secondly, what’s up with power chords? They are comprised of only two notes, yet their name implies that they are indeed chords. I like to consider them simply chords, just a different variety.

If you are curious, power chords drop the middle note and only consist of the root and a 5th. But that is not something you need to worry about just yet.

Moving forward, I won’t be including power chords here because there is no need to discuss them, as it will just add extra fluff, and I want to keep things as simple as possible.

The simplest chords are built from a root note, a 3rd, and a 5th. If that is confusing, it’s completely alright. I will break it down into easily digestible parts as we go.

In music, a chord consisting of three tones, also called chord factors, is made up of the root note, the 3rd, and the 5th. This three-note chord is what’s known as a triad.

And just for fun, if you’re curious what a four-note chord is called, it’s called a tetrad. Hopefully one day, you’ll be diving into the theory behind them and learning to master that guitar of yours.

To understand the difference between major and minor chords, we need to understand what an interval is

Let me give you a simple and straightforward definition of what an interval is. An interval in music is defined as a distance in pitch between any two notes.

On a guitar, one interval is the distance of one fret. And by that, I mean moving from the second to the third fret is one interval. Moving from the eighth to the seventh fret is also one interval.

On a piano, this is the equivalent of moving one key to the right or one key to the left. It doesn’t matter if it is two white keys side by side or one white key and one black key. As long as the distance is one key, that’s one interval.

Now that we understand what an interval is in music, we need to cover one more topic before we can move on to constructing our first C major chord.

A brief discussion on musical scales

We don’t need to do a deep dive into scales in music (that will be for a different post), but we still need to have some basic knowledge of what a scale is so we can properly understand how chords are built.

The C major scale looks like this: C – D – E – F – G – A – B

Notice there are no sharps or flats; that’s what makes this the perfect scale for beginners to start with.

There are many different types of scales, but for now, we will focus specifically on the C major scale.

Building a C major chord

Let’s move on to constructing a major chord. We’ll then construct a minor chord and learn what makes minor chords minor, and how they are different from major chords.

Since we are building a C major chord, our root note will need to be the C note. Next, we need to add a 3rd. Referring back to the C major scale above, we can see that the 3rd note in that scale is the note E.

Let’s grab that note and add it to our root note of C. We now know two of the notes in the C major chord: C – E.

Finally, let’s grab the last note, which if you count to the 5th note in the C major scale above, you’ll see that it is the G note.

Putting it all together, we get the notes that form the C major chord: C – E – G.

I’ll put a graphic below that will help you construct any chord you want that is found in the C major scale. Simply pick a note and going clockwise, choose the next two notes. That’s all you need to construct any triad found in the C major scale.

Building a C minor chord

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, minor chords contain the same root note, as well as the same 5th, but the middle note (known as a 3rd interval) is one half step lower in pitch (or one fret on the guitar).

To put it another way, the quality (major, minor, augmented, or diminished) of a triad is based on the intervals between each note of that triad.

This means, if you want to change a G major chord into a G minor chord, all you would need to do is change the middle note, which in this case is a B, to a B♭, by lowering it one half step. This also means that the G minor chord (because the C scale has no sharps or flats) is not part of the C major scale, but rather part of the F major scale.

What is the difference between major and minor chords?

The following paragraphs sum everything up, but it might be the hardest part of this whole post to understand, so make sure you read them multiple times if you need to.

Major triads have a major third from the root note to the middle note, which is equivalent to 2 whole steps, or 4 half steps (4 frets on the guitar). Major triads contain a minor 3rd from the middle note to the last. That is equivalent to 3 half steps (3 frets on the guitar).

Here are a couple of visual examples to help cement this concept further.

Minor triads have a minor third from the root note to the middle note, which is equivalent to 3 half steps (3 frets on the guitar). Minor triads contain a major 3rd from the middle note to the last. That is equivalent to 2 whole steps, or 4 half steps (4 frets on the guitar).

Here are a couple of visual examples to help cement this concept further.

What to do next?

If you are brand new to music, music production, or are interested in learning to play the drums, you can check out my article: What is a DAW? – What Does DAW stand for?

You might also want to check out this article: Acoustic Vs. Electronic Drums – Which One is Right for You?

If you are looking at buying your first drum set or any other musical instrument for that matter, take a look at Zzounds. They have a variety of acoustic drum sets and electronic drum sets for purchase.