page_title: Major and minor
section_title: Advanced theory
hierarchical_section_title: Major and minor / Advanced theory
caption_attribution_description: English: Minor as upside down major.
context_page_description: In Western music, the adjectives major and minor may describe an interval, chord, scale, or key. As such, a composition, movement, section, or phrase may be referred to by its key, including whether that key is major or minor.
context_section_description: In the Neo-Riemannian theory, the minor mode is considered the inverse of the major mode, an upside down major scale based on (theoretical) undertones rather than (actual) overtones (harmonics) (See also: Utonality). 
  The root of the minor triad is thus considered the top of the fifth, which, in the United States, is called the fifth. So in C minor, the tonic is actually G and the leading tone is A♭ (a half step), rather than, in major, the root being C and the leading tone B (a half step). Also, since all chords are analyzed as having a tonic, subdominant, or dominant function, with, for instance, in C, A minor being considered the tonic parallel (US relative), Tp, the use of minor mode root chord progressions in major such as A♭-major—B♭-major—C-major is analyzed as sP—dP—T, the minor subdominant parallel (see: parallel chord), the minor dominant parallel, and the major tonic. (Gjerdingen, 1990)
caption: Minor as upside down major
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