


closed as primarily opinion-based by Doktor Mayhem Mar 12 at 18:43


locked by Doktor Mayhem Mar 15 at 12:39


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  • This question and its answers are not a good fit here. It is entirely opinion based. In western music we have a general tradition that minor = sad, but even that is not universal. – Doktor Mayhem Mar 15 at 12:39

12 Answers 12









Here lies musical universality.


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    I still don't see how this answers anything. – neilfein Apr 27 '11 at 13:47
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    I don't feel this answer is really correct. The overtones for the notes composing the minor chord are always present as well. – Agos Sep 23 '11 at 7:26



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    But then, why are they stereotyped that way? – Sophie Alpert Apr 26 '11 at 19:34
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    @Rein: "various cultures that had no communication with each other all agreed" — which are these various cultures you talk of? See both this very answer and Alex Basson's answer — the question contains a false premise. – ShreevatsaR Jun 27 '11 at 6:51


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Darbari Kanada






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    Best answer. It is entirely subjective. – dennisdeems Jun 18 '15 at 15:33














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    This is the only answer that talks about movement implied by musical melodic motion, and how scale note choices influence this. There are links between motion and emotion. This is probably the main thing influencing how we associate emotional affects with notes and scales. Plus, explains how you can play against scale: make a minor mode sound happy or vice versa by purposely composing against the scales grain, as it were. – Phil Freihofner Mar 26 '17 at 3:46









It's a conventional interpretation in Western classical music, or rather a simplistic interpretation of some conventions in Western classical music.

It's not hard to convince yourself of this - you can start by observing that the traditional minor scale in Western music is just a permutation of the traditional major, so the same relationships are present in both scales. Similarly, the major triad is composed of a major third and a minor third, while the minor triad is composed of a minor third and a major third, so again the same relationships are present.

You can also observe that in many styles of music, "minor" keys are used to compose joyful and upbeat music. There are a number of examples already cited, I'll add Irish traditional dance music, which has both melancholy airs in major keys and perky reels and jigs in minor keys.


Here is an explanation of WHY. It comes from the tensions among the notes based on the ratios of their frequencies.

These intervals in Equal Temperament are pretty close to whole-number ratios, so we can look at the tensions these ratios create to understand why the Major sounds generally more confident and established, while the Minor sounds perhaps more internally conflicted and less resolute.

A Major triad is near the ratios 4:5:6, in which the interval of the Perfect Fifth (2:3) between the root and fifth of the chord are the strongest interval (most consonant thanks to the lowest whole-number ratio), and the Major Third is the next most consonant. It suggest a group of three in which the root is in charge, the fifth is very supportive, and the third is in harmony with them both (also having a consonant 5:6 relationship with the fifth). Imagine a government where the VP backs up the Pres and so does the House Leader.

A Minor triad, however, is near the ratios 10:12:15 (since the Minor Third has a 5:6 ratio), meaning that after the Perfect Fifth the third and fifth share greater harmony (4:5) than the root and its third (5:6). Though the triad is still very harmonious, it doesn't all relate to the root, so there isn't the same confident consensus with both the fifth and third "going along with" the root. The root can be imagined as internally challenged by the fifth. Imagine a government where the VP backs up the Pres, but the House Leader shows more support to the VP, so there's a bit less consensus and strength.

  • I'm not sure this is all that different from Edgar Gonzalez's explanation. You're referring to an idea about tension, invoking a rule that smaller whole number ratios are more consonant. How is this different from Edgar Gonzalez's explanation, which states that chords appearing lower in the harmonic series (and thus which use smaller numbers in the ratios) are more natural (i.e., less tension)? – jdjazz Jul 16 '17 at 19:55
  • I believe that you may have misread my contribution. I pointed out that the two non-root notes in a minor triad aren't both harmonics of the root. This presents a "weaker" accord with the root, so that it has less dominance. – Epanoui Jul 17 '17 at 1:40
  • I think that's what Edgar Gonzalez was describing when he wrote "For this reason, and because the major triad is always there, it results in a contradiction." Do you agree? – jdjazz Jul 17 '17 at 2:14
  • I'm not trying to argumentative -- I don't see him saying that, unless he actually meant to write "there is a major third between the third and fifth of the minor triad". Maybe he meant "third" instead of "triad". I read him to be saying that since the third is a higher harmonic, it's not as strongly related to the root; this is different from saying that the third of the minor triad relates well with the fifth, so that the root feels less confirmed. – Epanoui Jul 19 '17 at 21:50
  • Ah, I think I see--when Edgar says that the major triad is always there, I believe he means that playing the root always produces a harmonic tone that's a major third up from the root. So when a minor chord is played, the ear hears the minor third along with the ever-present major third. That's the contradiction I think Edgar is referring to. (I'm also not trying to be argumentative--the discussion is helping me understand better. Maybe Edgar's post would benefit from some additional explanation/ elaboration.) – jdjazz Jul 19 '17 at 22:02
