I have some basic music theory knowledge, but there’s just something I can’t figure out.
What are minor keys for?
If a minor key has the same signature as a major key, how does one know the difference? What’s the point?
Maybe I just have a simplistic idea of the purpose and meaning of keys.
I think you’re looking at things the wrong way around. To my mind, minor and major keys, key signatures and the like, aren’t actually “for” anything. They are merely way to describe music, which is something you hear - not read - after all.
How do you tell that a tune is in a major rather than minor key? Using other clues besides the key signature, typically the last note in the tune (if it’s a standard major or minor key tune). For example if the tune has 2 sharps and ends on a D, chances are it’s a D major tune. If it ends on B, on the other hand, chances are it’s a B minor tune.
I’m assuming you know the difference between the sound of a minor mode or scale and a major one.
D major scale starts on D and uses F# and C#. Its “relative minor”, B minor uses exactly the same notes, but starts on B. This different starting point means that, athough the same notes are used, the relationships between the notes at crucial points in the scale are different.
One of the crucial points is the 3rd note in the scale. In D major, (DEF#) the third note, F#, is a whole tone above the second. This gives the scale its characteristic “major” sound - bright and open
In B minor (BC#D) the third note, D, is only a semitone above the second. This gives the scale a “minor” cast - darker, more closed in.
Does this help?
Ok, that helps slightly, but let me try to rephrase my question.
How does a tune in in a minor key differ from a tune in the corresponding(signature-wise) major key?
Every tune has a home, or fundamental note. That is the note that tune wants to go back home to, and that is the note it will (usually) end on.
In major and minor keys, although the number of sharps and flats is the same, this home note is different.
For one sharp for instance, you get G-major (the tune is likely to end in G) or E-minor (the tune is likely to end in E). You can also think of the scale that the tune is based on as starting on G (G-major, one sharp) or on E (E-minor, also one sharp).
Note that in Irish trad things are more complicated that than, because you don’t see many straight-up major or minor tunes.
Thanks Bloomfield.
What you said kind of clicks with the fuzzy remembrance of words like Tonic and Dominant, and the concepts that go along with them.
I think I understand now. It’s just abstract in a way I have trouble wrapping my mind around.
When I improvise or transcribe, the whole resolving thing kind of comes naturally so I think my problem is applying the words to the music.
Hi,
In one key signature, there are supposed to be one major and one natural minor. The two scales cover all the intervals(on chromatic scale). For me that was the easiest way to teach myself all the intervals.
I learned this way and if I catch minor 6th,my brain soon play it counting each note as A H C D E F(I learned evey interval like this on the key of A) and A H C D E F has sad feeling then I know thats 6th note with atmospher of ‘minor’. This process occurs so rapid that theres no need for time interval.
Well, tonic is the technical term for something you dilute gin with and happens also to be the correct term for what I called home note before.
Question is what are modes (e.g. Major and minor) for?
Same fundamental note (say, D) yet totally different scales feeling, because of the arrangement of the two semitones within the scale: the tell-tale one, i.e. first semitone encountered is between the 3rd and the 4th notes in Major modes, but between the 2nd and 3rd in minor modes.
Play a full “natural” scale on a D whistle DEF#GABC#D – Major
Play on a C whistle starting from D: DEFGABCD – dorian, which is a minor mode
Does it sound the same to you? One is major the latter minor–you may call it moody instead of modal 
Maybe. The key and the key signature are two differnt things. The latter just tells you which notes don’t belong to the “white keys” on the piano.
It just happens so that every major key (say, C) has a “relative minor” (A in this case) sharing the same tones. However, a tune based on CDEFGABC won’t sound the same as written for ABCDEFGA. The first in in C, the latter in A, a sixth higher.
The purpose of the key signature is purely technical: to avoid writing plenty accidentals within the score. If you’re in G (Major), you’ve ben told once at the start (and in simple cases, for all) that every dot on the “F” space is supposed to be a sharp–F#. Imagine a tune in B Major written without the 5 sharps signature: the crotchets would look like a mess with all these # on five tones out of seven.
Whatever the scale, if you use relative solfying, you’ll sing do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do whatever the absolute pitch of the scale (i.e. whether “do” means a D, or an F#. Now, you’d better know which are the sharps or flats.
Similarly, in any given “full” scale, the tones will have to cover all of A,B,C,D,E,F,G. Then some of these may have to be # or b.
Hence this convention in writing… which works best with trad or pre-baroque music.
When you see the mess of conventional writing for harmonic (“classic”) minor, then you may wonder… but that’s a totally different question.
To amplify just a little on what Steve said, there are certain notes that are stressed in the tune that will make it major or minor. The beginnings or especially the ends of phrases will give the tune the major or minor feel. Also, the intervals and chords, especially the major or minor third, convey a feel. Mixolydian has the major third, and Dorian the minor third, and these modes have the major and minor feel, too.
It all adds up to, the major keys tend to convey a happy or excited feeling, while the minor keys give a sad, brooding, longing, or moody feeling. (feel free to insert y’all’s preferred adjectives.)
None of this is exactly cut-and-dried. Beethoven only wrote two minor-key symphonies, but to my ears, he used the relative minors much more. Haydn wrote mostly major-key symphonies, too, but even his minor-key work usually switched to the relative major almost immediately. And a lot of Irish music may technically be in one mode, but convey an entirely different spirit. That, of course, is all in the ears, heart, and brain of the listener.
So what’s the practical application of say… modes?
It seems like driving from New York to Conneticut via Texas.
Why would I need to pack up sets of intervals in little boxes?
I guess it could help with learning why certain music sounds sad, but why need to understand that. If I can compose a little melancholy tune spontaineously, why would I want to use a formula?
You don’t. Just play.
Right, you don’t have to use a formula. It’s all in the comfort of the scale you’re in. If you have a D whistle, you own the melancholy over the key of Bm.
Like Bloomfield said…just play. Once you know what your minor equivalent to your major key is, you’re home free!
Omega de Chronos?
Would you by any chance be a kin of Irony von Swatch (as your minor relative, of course)?
My response was just to your original question :‘If a minor key has the same signature as a major key, how does one know the difference? What’s the point?’.
xcaliburgirl,I dont know what you need why you need what.
:roll:
A very distant relative. I’m the black sheep however…they don’t talk to me much, as I have shunned the disciplines of society. 
grin
Ohh, and sweet avatar by the way!