Major Chords / Minor Chords

in the previous article, I explained that the prime chords, the six basic chords in a key, are divided into two types.

Measuring by semitones, Type 1 is stacked in the form of [0,4,7], while type 2 is [0,3,7]. We’re gonna have a deeper look at this difference.

1. Naming and Notations

This time I’m gonna introduce their names first. A chord “Type 1” is called a Major Chord and “Type 2” is called a Minor Chord.

This is a similar story to major/minor keys or major/minor scales.

Chord Names

On indicating a specific chord, alphabet pitch names are used. For example, the chord of C–E–G starts its tertian accumulation from C, hence “C major chord”. Or the chord of A–C–E is a minor chord starting with A so “A minor chord“.

Yes yes the manner is really analogous to that of scales. These are the chord names.

Chord Symbols

But when you write chord names, 5 letter words “major/minor” are lengthy. So we use following symbols to indicate chord types:

Major chords has the most privileged status so “just an alphabet with no suffix” stands for major chords. Overwhelming! For minor chords, on the other hand, the lowercase “m” is appended to indicate the word “minor”. It must be lowercase, not uppercase. These simplified signs are called Chord Symbols.

Variations of Symbols

there exist several variations of chord symbols just like dialects. Typical patterns are like followings:

① adopts uppercase “M” for “Major” in contrast to “m” for minor. ② is kinda courteous way, spending 3 letters to clearly indicate a chord type. ③ is the complete opposite, the most symbolic way of abbreviation.

It’d be a possible choice to adopt “-” for minor chords as it’s the easiest one to write. But it’s not at all recommended that any symbol be added for major chords because anything will be redundant when compared to the shortest abbreviation; the void.