Editing Major and minor (section)

==Keys==
The hallmark that distinguishes major keys from minor is whether the third [[scale degree]] is major or minor. Major and minor keys are based on the corresponding scales, and the [[Tonic (music)|tonic triad]] of those keys consist of the corresponding chords; however, a major key can encompass minor chords based on other roots, and vice versa.

As [[Musicology|musicologist]] [[Roger Kamien]] explains, "the crucial difference is that in the minor scale there is only a [[half step]] between '2nd and 3rd note' and between '5th and 6th note' as compared to the major scales where the difference between '3rd and 4th note' and between '7th and 8th note' is [a [[half step]]]."<ref name="Kamien" /> This alteration in the third degree "greatly changes" the mood of the music, and "music based on minor scales tends to" be considered to "sound serious or melancholic,"<ref name="Kamien" /> at least to contemporary Western ears.

Minor keys are sometimes said to have a more interesting, possibly darker sound than plain major scales.<ref>Craig Wright (September 18, 2008).[http://oyc.yale.edu/music/listening-to-music/content/transcripts/transcript-5-melody-notes-scales-nuts-and-bolts "Listening to Music: Lecture 5 Transcript"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100804193937/http://oyc.yale.edu/music/listening-to-music/content/transcripts/transcript-5-melody-notes-scales-nuts-and-bolts |date=2010-08-04 }}, ''Open Yale Courses''.</ref> [[Harry Partch]] considers minor as, "the immutable faculty of ratios, which in turn represent an immutable faculty of the human ear."<ref name="Genesis">[[Harry Partch|Partch, Harry]] (2009). ''[[Genesis of a Music]]: An Account of a Creative Work, Its Roots, and Its Fulfillments'', pp. 89–90. {{ISBN|9780786751006}}.</ref> The minor key and scale are also considered less justifiable than the major, with [[Paul Hindemith]] calling it a "clouding" of major, and [[Moritz Hauptmann]] calling it a "falsehood of the major".<ref name="Genesis" />

Changes of mode, which involve the alteration of the third, and [[mode mixture]] are often analyzed as minor changes unless structurally supported because the root and overall key and tonality remain unchanged. This is in contrast with, for instance, [[transposition (music)|transposition]]. Transposition is done by moving all intervals up or down a certain constant interval, and ''does'' change the [[key (music)|key]] but not the [[Musical mode|mode]], which requires the alteration of intervals. The use of [[triad (music)|triad]]s only available in the minor mode, such as the use of A{{music|flat}}-major in C major, is relatively decorative [[chromaticism]], considered to add color and weaken the sense of key without entirely destroying or losing it.