Minor keys are... unimportant?

Whistle
1

Heya,

Someone I know has recently been playing with a new band. He plays guitar. He also loves to play in minor keys as much as major. But the box player in the band only likes to play in Gmajor. This box player says that “the minor keys are unimportant and that is why they are called minor”.

I’m not an expert in theory, but isnt just a matter of taste, and the “feeling” you want your tunes to have? I’m personally a fanatic of minor tunes, and for me they’re a lot more important than major tunes. Any toughts?

2

I wonder if the modes have varying degrees of unimportance to him… he he…

:slight_smile:

3

Ohhh Dear !, . . . sounds like the Box player needs to work at finding a different note to add to the 7 he’s already comfortable with. . . . But Hey !! . . . I guess we were all beginners at one time.

You’re right though . . . you don’t have to be an expert in music theory . . . but there is so much for the box player to discover about ‘minor’ and modal keys.

Lets hope he perseveres . . .

Regards - Tony P

[ This Message was edited by: tony pearson on 2002-03-10 12:28 ]

4

Howdy,

I had a thoery prof. in college who said that there are more songs in minor keys in the world than in major. The thing about minor is that there are variations, such as melodic and harmonic minor, which gives the musician the abilitiy to express more emotions, musically. Whether or not minor is unimportant, when I looked up minor in the Harvard Dictionary of Music, it told me to look it up under major/minor. As for your friend, I think he only wanted to play in the the key of g.

5

I was once told that life isn’t Disneyland by a conductor. I think that kind of discribes minor well.

6

I think maybe the box player just likes happy music. And there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as you don’t insist that everybody else in the world follow you. Haydn probably wrote close to 100 symphonies in major keys, and in the rest he found the relative major pretty quickly. This was his nature, and he was unapologetic about it, but he was one of Mozart’s primary teachers and encouraged Mozart to explore his “dark side.”

There are also plenty of ways to affect the feel or emotion of a tune beyond the mode. I’m sometimes surprised to find that a reel I’ve listened to for years is in a minor key or that a Brahms trio is in a major key, or what feelings other modes can convey.

Charlie

7

Az,
The box player is either the most boring person in the world or he’s smoking crack.
Chris

[ This Message was edited by: ChrisLaughlin on 2002-03-10 22:30 ]

8

On 2002-03-10 10:03, Azalin wrote in part:

But the box player in the band only likes to play in Gmajor. This box player says that “the minor keys are unimportant and that is why they are called minor”.
…

I’m personally a fanatic of minor tunes, and for me they’re a lot more important than major tunes. Any toughts?

I’m a big fan of minor and modal keys too, and although I felt confident the box player’s explanation could be dismissed, I was curious about the origin of the term and when it was first used.

According to the relevant part of the word’s entry in the Oxford English Dictionary, minor is "[a]pplied to intervals smaller by a chromatic semitone than those called major; as minor third, sixth, seventh (and sometimes minor fourth and fifth, more usually called diminished or imperfect)… denoting those keys, or that mode, in which the scale has a minor third (also, usually, a minor sixth, and often a minor seventh). "

This, by the way, is what my wife (a real musician, unlike me) told me she thought was the explanation.

Although the OED doesn’t answer the question about first usage in all languages, the first citation it gives in English dates to 1694. Unfortunately neither of my French etymological dictionaries divides its entry for “mineur” up by sense.

However, it’s clear that “minor” tunes are so-called because the third’s interval is smaller (in Latin, minor), not because the tunes are less important.

John

9

On 2002-03-10 22:28, ChrisLaughlin wrote:
Az,
The box player is either the most boring person in the world or he’s smoking crack.
Chris

[ This Message was edited by: ChrisLaughlin on 2002-03-10 22:30 ]

I second the smoking crack bit…

:slight_smile:

10

I don’t like minor keys either. And I don’t like 3/4 time, there’s always a beat missing.

11

On 2002-03-10 12:48, JohnPalmer wrote:

The thing about minor is that there are variations, such as melodic and harmonic minor, which gives the musician the abilitiy to express more emotions, musically.

Ok… I was going to let this comment go but having taught theory and really enjoying the study of it myself… I just couldn’t let that go without a critique… While I do think that the melodic & harmonic minor scales are “expressive” A musician cannot express himself more just by using a certain scale… If one just played in harmonic minor it would sound quite boring after a while… Those scales also have the effect of sounding more exotic because our ears don’t hear them as much…

As far as tweaking with a major scale… (We’re all familiar with tweaking aren’t we!?) Add the #4… Making it Lydian, flat the 7th, Mixolydian… Play just the Major Pentatonic Scale… All these techniques you can use to be more expressive… Don’t forget to add Joy & Feel to the Mix…

I like to say that different scales sound different for the same reason that different plaids look different… One plad may have a certain color stripe spaced at a different but consistant distance than another plaid… Thus marking its uniqueness…

The major scale spacing is: Whole Step, Whole Step, Half Step, Whole Step, Whole Step, Whole Step, Half Step… While say Dorian is Whole Step, Half Step, Whole Step, Whole Step, Whole Step, Half Step, Whole Step…

Forgive me if this remedial to most of you but I just get excited over silly stuff like this! :slight_smile:

However back to the idiom that most of us love… Well… We’re usually playing in the modes… Ionian (Major) Dorian Mixolydian & Aeolian being the most common…

As for your friend, I think he only wanted to play in the the key of g.

Yep… that probably sums it up… Maybe throw him a whistle in D… He’ll soon find he likes playing in D all the time! That is unless he gets REALLY hooked and discovers C&F! Then he’ll want one in every key like me!

Ok… sorry for the ramblings…

:slight_smile:

12

On 2002-03-11 11:57, Bloomfield wrote:
I don’t like minor keys either. And I don’t like 3/4 time, there’s always a beat missing.

Ah but Bloomfield, tag on a Slip Jig in 9/8, and you’ve got 12/12, a whole again!:grin:

By the by, I played my mother all my Slow Airs on Mother’s Day (I’m a good boy, I am, and it was cheaper than flowers), and she said they were all such sad tunes that put her in mind of the potato famine. None of them were in minor keys, but it got her thoroughly depressed!

Sometimes I need a few sad tunes (and in minor keys) to balance out the rocket powered rollercoaster of FUN that is my life. Sigh.

13

I vote for minor keys. Also for waltzes.

14

Tell your box player that minor tunes are the ones who can’t drink beer at the session.

Gosh, I crack myself up. But really, is he serious?

My favorite mode on the whistle is Mixolydian, the one that starts on “a” (on a d whistle). The seventh is lowered, and tunes in this mode have always stayed with me.

Tom

15

Whew, could someone please explain what language you are all talking, I must have logged onto http://www.chiffandfipple.finland.com by mistake! Everybody spoke English here yesterday. Who is Mick O’lidean?

:slight_smile: