Skip to main content
major

major

21 6.5
A key or scale that sounds bright and happy
  • adjective
  • /ˈmeɪdʒər/
  • Specialized
: mayor
  • Start with tonic and dominant patterns in major and minor keys.
  • major scale
  • major key
  • major chord

I can do D flat major over E major.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • I can do D flat major over E major.

  • It's even a A major now I think, right?

  • We're moving up minor thirds, D flat major, E major.

  • The first chord, E flat major, is in its most natural root position.

  • Now let's try the G-major scale.

  • Blues scales should also be introduced in various keys while working on the major scales.

    Academic text (1994)
  • Begin with one-chord songs and progress gradually to three-chord songs in major and minor.

    Academic text (1997)
  • By clicking on chord names, students can see fingerings and hear differences between major and minor chords.

    Academic text (1999)
  • Students echo, improvise, and read tonal patterns in major, minor, and other tonalities, such as Dorian and Mixolydian.

    Academic text (1999)
  • In music class, we learned how to play the C major scale, which sounds bright and cheerful.

Synonyms

maj
vsmajor
  • Jargon
1 8.6

A musical key or chord with a bright, happy sound

is the full written form used instead of the shortened label

Antonyms

minor
  • Specialized
25 7.4

A musical key that sounds sad

Compounds

144 3.4

The highest level of professional sport where the best players play

69 3.2

An important problem that needs a solution

sergeant major
  • Specialized
38 6.1

A senior soldier who advises officers and keeps order in a unit

37 6.9

A senior army officer who commands large groups of soldiers

34 3.8

A person or company that has a lot of power in a field

major surgery
  • Specialized
19 4.0

A serious operation on the body that doctors do while you are asleep and that has more risk

10 4.6

A country with strong military and political influence worldwide

A team that plays at the highest professional level in a sport

A baseball player who plays for a top professional team

5 5.0

A leader who directs a marching band and leads it in parades

3 8.1

A group of stars in the southern sky containing the bright star Sirius

3 3.5

A major key with no sharps or flats that uses only the white keys on a piano

2 7.3

A group of stars in the northern sky that look like a big bear

2 6.8

A senior soldier who helps run a group of soldiers and manages discipline and administration

A team that plays in the top professional sports league, like baseball

major screwup
  • Informal
1 5.6

A big mistake that causes serious problems

major premise
  • Specialized
1 7.4

A general statement that includes the main word in the conclusion, for example 'All humans are mortal'

major scale
  • Specialized
1 3.7

A set of seven notes with whole steps except half steps between the third and fourth and seventh and eighth

major key
  • Specialized
1 4.9

A set of musical notes that sounds bright and happy

1 3.6

A large world like Earth that moves around the Sun and shines by reflected light

1 6.1

A period of severe sadness and loss of interest that makes daily life hard

pectoralis major
  • Specialized
1 4.6

A large chest muscle that helps move the arm toward the body and turn it

1 9.8

A person who manages the staff and daily running of a large house

major axis
  • Specialized
1 6.3

The longest straight line through an ellipse that passes through its two special inner points

variola major
  • Specialized
1 9.2

A severe, common form of smallpox that often caused fever, many skin sores, and many deaths

A sequence of notes C D E F G A B with no sharps or flats

major mode
  • Specialized
1 6.3

A way of using the major scale in music that sounds bright and happy

teres major
  • Specialized
1 7.4

A thick round muscle in the upper back that turns the arm toward the body

1 6.6

Strong medicine that calms people with serious mental illness like schizophrenia

A blue-grey fish with black stripes that lives in warm shallow seas

thalassemia major
  • Specialized
1 9.6

A severe inherited blood disease that causes very low red blood cells and needs regular transfusions

major mineral
  • Specialized
1 3.5

A substance the body needs in fairly large amounts to stay healthy

Plantago major
  • Specialized
1 6.6

A common plant with broad leaves that grows in lawns and gardens

teres major muscle
  • Specialized
1 7.0

A muscle in the upper back that moves the arm and turns it inward

1 8.2

A serious mental illness that causes very low or very high mood

major term
  • Specialized
1 9.2

The term that is the predicate in the conclusion of a syllogism

Vinca major
  • Specialized
1 8.3

A trailing evergreen plant with shiny green and white leaves and blue or purple flowers

Astrantia major
  • Specialized
1 9.9

A garden plant with star-shaped white or pink flowers and leaves in a low clump

1 8.0

A person who leads a bagpipe band and arranges the music

epilepsia major
  • Archaic
9.9

An intense seizure when a person loses consciousness and their whole body shakes strongly

major diatonic scale
  • Specialized
7.2

A common eight-note pattern in Western music with small steps between third and fourth and seventh and eighth

A very important Jewish day when people fast, like Yom Kippur or Tisha B'Av

major form class
  • Specialized
7.7

A main group of words like nouns, verbs, and adjectives that show a word's role in a sentence

A big delay that stops or slows progress

9.9

A statement in a logical argument that contains the conclusion's main term

major suit
  • Jargon
8.1

A suit worth more points, spades or hearts

major lobe
  • Specialized
7.4

Main direction an antenna sends or receives its strongest signal

4.9

A large chest muscle that pulls the arm toward the body and turns it inward

8.9

A back muscle that pulls the shoulder blade toward the spine

musculus teres major
  • Specialized
8.1

A muscle in the upper arm that pulls the arm back and turns it inward toward the body

7.0

A muscle in the upper back that pulls the shoulder blade toward the spine

scale of C major
  • Specialized
3.7

A set of notes from C to B with no sharps or flats

variola major virus
  • Specialized
7.7

A very deadly form of smallpox that often causes death

vis major
  • Formal
9.9

A strong natural event like an earthquake or flood that you cannot stop and that stops normal life

How Bright

major
  • Specialized
21 6.5
minor
  • Specialized
25 7.4

Surface Forms

major positive

Etymology

Major in music comes from the Latin maior meaning 'greater' and was used to name the scale that sounds 'brighter' or more open than a 'minor' scale. So a piece in a major key usually feels happier or stronger.