The Minor Chords
The minor chord sound is often described as “dark” and “sad.” I first became aware of minor chords when they were used as background music for Moorish or Arabic themed films featuring a lot of deserts and desert scenes. I tend to associate minor sounds to the warm colors of the spectrum – the reds, oranges, and yellows. They are often used as accent “colors” to pep up a standard chord progression. You could think of them as exotic spices used to make a common dish transcendent. Here is a sample (544KB) of some minor sounds (from Korngold’s score to the film “The Sea Hawk”). There’s no chord analysis; just absorb the sounds. See if it doesn’t bring mental images of warm-hued colors and spices.

When we were discussing how chords were made, we brought up the idea of taking a major scale, like the key of C, and starting it on the first, or tonic note, and creating a C Major chord. We then started the scale on the fourth note of the scale, F, and created an F Major chord. We did the same thing on the fifth note of the scale creating a G Major chord (which technically is called a Dominant chord). Now we will explore the other scale degrees beginning with the sixth degree, A. If we start the C scale on the sixth note we would get:

If you play this scale on an instrument starting with the A note and working through it, you will hear a definite minor sound there. This scale is actually what is called a mode. In this case, since it is built from the sixth note of the major scale, it is called the Aeolian mode. The mode that started on the C note is called the Ionian mode, the one starting on the F note is the Lydian mode, and the one beginning on G is the Mixolydian mode. That information is provided for completeness, though it wouldn’t hurt to get familiar with the different modal names. Each mode has its own scale, built up from the basic C scale only with different intervals between the notes. For instance, the intervals that make up the C major scale are:

C
Whole Step = D
Whole Step = E
Half Step = F
Whole Step = G
Whole Step = A
Whole Step =B
Half Step = C

Whereas the intervals that make up the A Aeolian mode are:

A
Whole Step = B
Half Step = C
Whole Step = D
Whole Step = E
Half Step = F
Whole Step =G
Whole Step = A

It’s the same C scale, but with a different sound based on starting on an A note. It's that jump from A to C that gives this scale its distinctive minor sound. Now, let’s make the chord based on this scale. Take the first, third and fifth notes of the scale and stack them to make an A minor chord: