minor mode


nounMusic.
  1. a scale or key in which the third degree is a minor third above the tonic.

Origin of minor mode

1
First recorded in 1770–80

Words Nearby minor mode

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use minor mode in a sentence

  • This mode, it is obvious, is based on the scale which is the descending scale of the modern minor mode.

    The Modes of Ancient Greek Music | David Binning Monro
  • Let us take a concrete example: the change from the major to the minor mode carries with it a change of sentiment.

    Spirit and Music | H. Ernest Hunt
  • Lest this should become monotonous a musician played a melody in the minor mode and not without a strange haunting charm.

  • Thus it appears as a major scale with a diminished second and a minor sixth, a sort of major-minor mode.

    Franz Liszt | James Huneker
  • The minor mode is that of keys in which the tonic triad and one other cardinal triad are minor.

British Dictionary definitions for minor mode

minor mode

noun
  1. music any arrangement of notes present in or characteristic of a minor scale or key

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012