You certainly need to hear it to be able to identify the differences between the two types of chords, as well as the typical ‘vibes’ these chords give.I basically can recognise a minor chord from a major one through the existence of the flattened third relative to the root note (e.g. in a C minor chord, the third will be Eb instead of E, and the same applies for all minor chords), and while I do not sense it like how your teacher does, I personally feel a tinge of sadness and melancholy when I hear that minor third in the chord locking (granted, not all songs in minor are necessarily sad, but you get the point). On the other hand, major chords consist of a major third interval between the root and the second note of the triad, and they give a sense of happiness, cheerfulness and warmth.To be able to do it, ear training is very useful. I personally learned it through the movable do solfeggio system; when I was learning intervals, I have to sing the triads in solfege form (e.g. la-do-mi, re-fa-la, mi-so-ti for minor and do-mi-so, fa-la-do, so-ti-re for major), and accordingly I sense the feel of the respective triads (and accordingly, the chords) as described in the previous paragraph. My experience with listening to heavy metal back in my teens also helped. Metal songs tend to be in minor keys, which manage to fit the darkness and gloom that the music often portrays - this enables me to differentiate major and minor chords instantly whenever they are played.
How do I change a chord progression from major to minor key?
Greg's answer is correct, but to do this for any song/chord progression, you must understand the diatonic chords of each key in both major and minor. In Western music theory notation, chords can be notated using letters of the alphabet (as you did) or by Roman numerals. The Roman numeral notation helps think of chords relative to the tonic (Do, or in the example you gave, C, as the piece is in C major.) We'll take C major as an example. Its 7 chords (each built on a different note of the key) are: C Dm Em F G Am B-half-diminshed These chords follow a formula common to all keys, which notated in Roman numerals is: I ii iii IV V vi vii-half-diminished Capital Roman numerals indicate a major chord while lowercase numerals indicate minor chords. Now in a minor key, we simply build off of the 6th scale degree to get the same chords. Notated in relation to the major key, these would be: vi vii-half-diminished I ii iii IV V Now let's change them to fit the minor key. The chord qualities don't change, just the numbers. i ii-half-diminished III iv v VI VII Often the 7th scale degree in a minor key is raised to change it from natural to harmonic minor, making the qualities now: i ii-half-diminished III+ iv V VI #vii-diminished So using your example, if we wanted to change Heart and Soul to C minor, we'd simply find those roots on the C minor scale (C, Ab, F, G) find what scale degrees they are (1, 6, 4, 5) and build the chords according to either of the models above (Cm, Ab, Fm, Gm) for natural minor or (Cm, Ab, Fm, G) for harmonic minor. You can do the same with any chord progression. To present how you'd do another, here's an example of a major chord progression in the key of G major: G C Am D. We can find those roots in G minor (G, C, A, D) where they'd stay the same, find their scale degrees (1, 4, 2, 5) and build off of the two minor chord charts (Gm, Cm, A-half-diminished, Dm) or (Gm, Cm, A-half-diminished, D).
How to convert piano chords into minor?
Guitar chords have the same notes as piano chords. A Bm has the notes B, D and F#, whether it's on guitar or piano. Major chords are the 1, 3 5 of the scale. For example, a C chord is a C, E and a G. You can count them on your fingers(cdefgabc... a C scale has no sharps or flats, which makes it easy to explain with). To make a minor chord, you lower the third note of the scale 1/2 step. For example to make a Cm from a C chrod, you lower the E note to an Eb. So, if he can tell you the names of the chords, you just use the 1, 3 5 notes, and you have it. I hope that helps.
How do I read piano chords in sheet music?
I found this question quite interesting. I assume you already play some piano and you are familiar with the keys, notes and letter names. Therefore, when you see "Am above an A" as you said, that simply means that the A minor chord which consists of three notes (A, C, E) would be appropriate at that point in the melody. It just happens that the melody note was A at that time. But having an A in the melody doesn't automatically mean play an Am chord. You could be playing an F chord or even a Dm chord because they both contain the note A. The F chord = (F, A, C) & the Dm chord = (D, F, A). However, you also asked why the Am above C (i assume in the melody) of another piece of music. Well, simply like I said before the A minor chord includes a C so they both would still sound nice being played together no A is necessary and you could even have other notes that would still sound nice. (I'll explain more later). When the chords say C that means C chord = (C, E, G) G is a G chord = (G, B, D) and and G/B means to play the same G chord but with B a the lowest note hence it could be (B, D ,G or even B, G, D). Yes you were right to assume you play major unless you see a small "m" or even a minus sign ( A- = Am = A minor) Lastly, when pieces do not have the chord notation above the music at all, you have two options. Play the entire piece as written on both staves or you could derive your own chords based on the key signature, and the way the notes in the melody are notated on the top stave. You could use both staves to help determine chords even better and I find the latter quite helpful for persons who dont feel like reading the music as written. Using your example song "All My Life" in bar 4 the melody (top stave) has the notes C, A, C, D, E and an Am chord was used. The reason is due an A minor chord having the notes A, C & E and despite the D in the melody an Am chord would still sound nice because the D would just be what one would refer to as a passing note and the majority of the notes in that bar are the chord tones of an Am chord. For more info you would have to seek my tutelage :) Peace.
Science has yet to come up with an actual conclusion for this question.What the evidence does point to though, is that it is a product of our culture. We perceive, in western harmony, a minor third to be sad because that is how it has been perceived for centuries. It has become engrained in our brains to be sad.However, if you listen to Hebrew music or Eastern European music, they use tons of minor intervals in their music. They have their own scales such as the Hebrew scale or the various Hungarian scales. Their music isn't sad though, a lot of Hungarian dances and folk music used minor scales.Other scales to look at are the flamenco scale, Japanese scales and Chinese scales...basically all world scales actually XD.In other places around the world, cultures are used to pentatonic scales which are vastly different from our western ideas of music. Pentatonic scales can have minor intervals or major or even augmented or diminished intervals yet their cultures perceive these as normal and with their own emotions attached to them.I haven't found any conclusive articles online where scientists have found an actual reason for these intervals sounding happy. Especially since other cultures can contradict the western idea of 'major' and 'minor'.
What Makes a Major Chord Major?
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.
Chords are a combination of two(often three) or more notes having a certain relationship with each other. There are various families of chords. Chords belonging to the same family have same kind of relative relationship within their notes. Few such notable families are called Major, Minor, Major 5th, Major 7th etc.To understand how chords are built, you need to first understand the notes. There are seven basic distinct notes, namely A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Most often they are represented as starting from C (C, D, E, F, G, A, B). Apart from these seven notes there are 5 other notes between some of these making up for a uniform distribution of sounds on a mathematical scale. These are often referred to as sharps(#) or flats(♭).So the scale looks something like this - C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B.The sequence C, D, E, F, G, A, B forms the C Major Scale. You may note that all the notes in C Major scale are regular notes. This is not always true for any other Major Scale. But any major scale would follow the same relative sequence of notes(For ex, D major scale would be: D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#)Now, any family of chord follows the same relative sequence of notes(circularly). If we consider the Major Scale above, then any major chord can be constructed by choosing the first, 3rd and 5th note of that Major Scale. With that argument, if we construct C Major Chord, we end up using the following notes:C E G(1st 3rd 5th)Similarly, any minor chord can be constructed by choosing the 1st, minor of the 3rd and 5th note. Now, what does minor of a 3rd mean. It just means the note preceding that note in the complete 12 note sequence. So, in our case E is the 3rd for C Major Scale and the note preceding E in the 12 notes sequence is D#. So C minor chord comprises of the notes:C D# G.In a similar fashion, there is specific geometry of all chord families on the belt of 12 note sequence. An exact chord is named by appending the first note of the chord as its name, like C Major(or minor) above.