What Makes a Major Chord Major?

Question

I need to know.

Answer 1

Short but adequate and understandable answer-
A Major chord (triad) is made up of the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of a Major scale. A minor triad is the 1st, 3rd, and 5th of a minor scale. The only difference between the two, when built on the same root note, is that the minor 3rd is a half step lower than the Major 3rd.

Answer 2

The short answer:
The types of intervals that make up a chord make it major or minor. For a chord to be major, the intervals above the root must be 1 major third and 1 perfect fifth.

The long answer:
Major and minor are just Latin words for "big" and "small", but they have a specific technical meaning in music. To define a major chord, we must start with the intervals that it is built from.

Intervals can be perfect, major, minor, augmented, or diminished. Major intervals come from the major scale. The easiest major scale is C D E F G A B C. From that scale, the ascending interval C - D is major, C - E is major, C - A is major, C - B is major. Intervals that don't start with the first scale degree aren't guaranteed to be major within that key. All major intervals can be made minor by inflecting one of the notes inward (up if bottom note, down if top note). C - D is major, but C-sharp - D is minor, and C - D-flat is also minor. Minor intervals are also the ascending intervals from the major scale that *end* with C, like D - C, E - C. In other words, major and minor intervals switch quality when you leapfrog the bottom note over the other note to the top. C - E is major, but E - C is minor. (E - C is one half-step smaller than C - A. The interval E - C-sharp is major, because it comes from the E major scale.) You can make a diminished interval by inflecting one of the notes of a minor interval inward, and you can make an augmented interval by inflecting one of the notes of a major interval outward. Perfect intervals do not change quality if you switch the bottom note so that it's on top. C - G is perfect, and G - C is also perfect. Inflecting one note of a perfect interval always makes a diminished or augmented interval.

Chords are named after the quality of one or more of its intervals. All triads and seventh chords are built by stacking thirds (of any quality). Two thirds stacked together have a fifth on the outside (3+3 = 5), and three thirds stacked up have a seventh on the outside (3 + 3 + 3 = 7). The names of the notes in the chord come from their position when you stack the notes in thirds, even if the chord's notes are all spread out and out of order in the music. So E C G B should be rearranged as C E G B in order to analyze it. A chord can have a root, third, fifth, and sometimes a seventh.

Here is how you figure out the chord's quality:

All major and minor chords have a perfect fifth between the root and the fifth. So we must go with another interval to distinguish major from minor.

A major chord is named after the quality of the interval between the root and the third. Here are some major chords:
C E G
E G-sharp B
E-flat G B-flat
F A C
A-double-flat C-flat E-double-flat

A minor chord is also named after the quality of the interval of a third that is formed between the chord's root and third. Here are some minor chords:
C E-flat G
A C E
D-flat F-flat A-flat
G-double-sharp B-sharp D-double-sharp

Augmented and diminished chords are named after the quality of the interval between the root and the fifth. The interval between the root and third must follow the enlarged or contracted fifth by being major or minor, respectively. Here are some augmented or diminished chords:
A C E-flat
A-flat C E
C E G-sharp
C E A-flat
C E-flat G-flat
B-sharp D-sharp F-sharp

All seventh chords have two names (although they also have abbreviated forms). First you name the quality of the triad comprised of the first three notes in the stack of four thirds. Then you name the quality of the interval between the root and the seventh. Here are some seventh chords:
C E G B (major major 7th chord) (often abbr. major 7th chord)
C E G B-flat (major minor) (often called dominant 7th)
C E-flat G B-flat (minor minor) (often abbr. minor 7th)
C E-flat G B (minor major) (no abbreviation, used mostly in jazz)
C E-flat G-flat B-flat (diminished minor) (also called half-dim. 7th)
C E-flat G-flat B-double-flat (dim. dim.) (also called fully dim. 7th)
Augmented seventh chords are very rare, but C E G-sharp B-flat (augmented minor) is the most common.

Answer 3

A chord is major or minor becuase of the 3rd.

Major chords contain a root note, a note a major third above the root, and a note a perfect fifth above the root.

A minor chord contains a root note, a note a minor third above the root (a half step lower than the major third), and a note a perfect fifth above the root.

Answer 4

Major chord

The third is major For example C E G

minor chord the 3 is minor

Example C eb G

The interval between the root and the third is MAYOR 3rd

That is all

Answer 5

a major scale if the most basic scale mode. and when you take the first, third, and fifth scale degree of a major scale, you get a major cord. it usually sounds brilliant and happy.

Answer 6

3-rd "stair". if it is C-E-G it is major chord. If C-Es-G - minor.

Answer 7

Cause I SAID it was , ok?