"What's All This
Minor Chord Drama About?"

Whenever there is drama involved, whether the theme is love, mystery, or mischief, you can count on the fact that the minor chord is a tool in the composer's toolbox that will be used over and over again.

You learned the major chord here If you didn't please do so, then come back here.

Now that you are familiar with how to create and play around with the major triad on the piano, you can have fun with the minor triad in the same way.

To play the minor triad, you simply play the major triad and then make one simple adjustment. Here's how:

Simply take the middle key of the major triad you learned and lower it one half step, as shown here:

The first major triad we learned was C major, which consists of C, E, G.

Simply take the E and lower it one half step. Where does that bring you? Right, Eb (E flat). Play it with the same finger as you did with C Major (middle finger). All the same fingers are used for both chords.

Play them all together and there you have the C minor triad!

Even if you don't know what a "b" or "flat" is yet, it's okay. You can still play the minor triad. Just know that you are taking the middle key of the major chord (in this case E) and replacing it with the key that is immediately to the left. You can see that, for this chord, it will be a black key.

As you did with the major chords, have fun with the minor chords in the same way. Simply review what we had to say about playing around with the major triad here

Use both hands, too. Remember how we played the notes one at a time? Then together? Also, apply Piano Boxing to this chord the same way! Make it a game.

Of course, if you spent some time with the major triad, your fingers should start to feel a little more comfortable by now. That would depend on how involved you got with that major chord before moving on. Just the same, experiment with the approach we took with the major triad.

I want to mention something here. With this particular minor chord, you are required to play a black key with your middle finger. Whenever we play on the black keys, it becomes necessary to make a tiny adjustment with our hand position (really easy).

Because our fingers are only so long, we don't want to have to struggle at all to reach that black key, thus creating discomfort in our hand. So, simply move your hands so that all your fingers slide until they are between the black keys. Of course, the thumb doesn't go that far, but it is closer to the black keys.

You know you have this right when your middle finger can easily sit on that black key while playing all three keys in the chord.

So there you have it: to play a minor triad, simply:

1) choose the name of the minor chord you want to play (C minor)

2) play the major chord of the same name (C Major)

3) lower the middle key one half step

Easy!

Okay, now... in addition to applying what you did with the major triad, let your ears in on a little fun:

Play the C Major triad. Listen.

Now play the C minor triad. Listen again.

Can you make a distinction between the two? How does one sound differently from the other?

Again, play one. Then play the other.

Of the two, if you were composing, which would you choose if you were writing a happy sounding song? How about a sad one?

You can make this distinction, yes? Wonderful!

Most people would say that the major triad sounds "happy" or "merry" and the minor chord sounds "sad" or "dramatic"... some even say that the minor chord sounds "lower" - well, we did lower one note. A special note regarding this:

How you describe the different sounds compared to how someone else would describe them (adjectives like "happy" or "sad") is not important at all. Just allow yourself to get better at making the distinctions. What they sound like to you is what matters.

Create and play a few more minor triads, having some fun with the things we talked about. Learn to always listen to what you are playing. You see, since you have two chords to compare now, you are making sound distinctions, which we talk about here

If you want to learn to play piano by ear, this is a part of all that. When you listen to music, whether it be on the radio or background music for a film you're watching, you will start to listen differently - more confidently.

I mentioned those three movies above. Can you understand why the minor triad is a composer's friend when creating music for such themes? At some point, try to listen to the main theme songs of each of those movies.

Here I have provided tiny audio samples of the beginning of each of these themes played on piano. Listen to the very first chord being played in each sample. Do you recognize it as minor?

Theme from The Godfather:

A Time for Us:

(Again, you are hearing the D minor triad as the first chord being played in the left hand - see above illustration)

Love Story:

If you listen to the entire versions, you'll not only hear that minor chord as the first chord, but you'll also hear it throughout the music. This is why the theme songs compliment the movie scenes so well.

Please do take the time to experiment with more major chords, playing with them as I suggested. Then as you create each one, convert it to the minor chord of the same name and play some more!