
In
music theory, a minor third is a
musical interval
In music theory, an interval is a difference in pitch between two sounds.
An interval may be described as horizontal, linear, or melodic if it refers to successively sounding tones, such as two adjacent pitches in a melody, and vertical or ha ...
that encompasses three
half steps, or
semitone
A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically.
It is defined as the interval between two adjacent no ...
s.
Staff notation represents the minor third as encompassing three
s (see:
interval number). The minor third is one of two commonly occurring thirds. It is called ''minor'' because it is the smaller of the two: the
major third
In classical music, a third is a musical interval encompassing three staff positions (see Interval number for more details), and the major third () is a third spanning four semitones. Forte, Allen (1979). ''Tonal Harmony in Concept and P ...
spans an additional semitone. For example, the interval from A to C is a minor third, as the note C lies three semitones above A. Coincidentally, there are three staff positions from A to C.
Diminished and
augmented thirds span the same number of staff positions, but consist of a different number of semitones (two and five). The minor third is a
skip melodically.
Notable examples of ascending minor thirds include the opening two notes of "
Greensleeves
"Greensleeves" is a traditional English folk song. A broadside ballad by the name "A Newe Northen Dittye of ye Ladye Greene Sleves" was registered by Richard Jones at the London Stationer's Company in September 1580,Frank Kidson, ''English Fo ...
" and of "
Light My Fire
"Light My Fire" is a song by the American rock band the Doors. It was recorded in August 1966 and released in January 1967 on their eponymous debut album. Released as an edited single on April 24, 1967, it spent three weeks at number one on ...
".
The minor third may be derived from the
harmonic series as the interval between the fifth and sixth harmonics, or from the 19th
harmonic
A harmonic is a wave with a frequency that is a positive integer multiple of the '' fundamental frequency'', the frequency of the original periodic signal, such as a sinusoidal wave. The original signal is also called the ''1st harmonic'', ...
.
The minor third is commonly used to express sadness in music, and research shows that this mirrors its use in speech, as a tone similar to a minor third is produced during sad speech. It is also a
quartal (based on an ascendance of one or more
perfect fourths
A fourth is a musical interval encompassing four staff positions in the music notation of Western culture, and a perfect fourth () is the fourth spanning five semitones (half steps, or half tones). For example, the ascending interval from C to th ...
)
tertian interval, as opposed to the
major third's quintality. The minor third is also obtainable in reference to a
fundamental note from the
undertone series, while the major third is obtainable as such from the
overtone series
A harmonic series (also overtone series) is the sequence of harmonics, musical tones, or pure tones whose frequency is an integer multiple of a '' fundamental frequency''.
Pitched musical instruments are often based on an acoustic resonator ...
. (See
Otonality and Utonality.)
The
minor scale
In music theory, the minor scale is three scale patterns – the natural minor scale (or Aeolian mode), the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale (ascending or descending) – rather than just two as with the major scale, which al ...
is so named because of the presence of this interval between its
tonic and
mediant (1st and 3rd)
scale degrees
In music theory, the scale degree is the position of a particular note on a scale relative to the tonic, the first and main note of the scale from which each octave is assumed to begin. Degrees are useful for indicating the size of intervals ...
.
Minor chords too take their name from the presence of this interval built on the chord's
root
In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the sur ...
(provided that the interval of a
perfect fifth
In music theory, a perfect fifth is the musical interval corresponding to a pair of pitches with a frequency ratio of 3:2, or very nearly so.
In classical music from Western culture, a fifth is the interval from the first to the last of five ...
from the root is also present or implied).
A minor third, in
just intonation
In music, just intonation or pure intonation is the tuning of musical intervals as whole number ratios (such as 3:2 or 4:3) of frequencies. An interval tuned in this way is said to be pure, and is called a just interval. Just intervals (and ...
, corresponds to a pitch ratio of 6:5 or 315.64
cents. In an
equal tempered
An equal temperament is a musical temperament or tuning system, which approximates just intervals by dividing an octave (or other interval) into equal steps. This means the ratio of the frequencies of any adjacent pair of notes is the same, w ...
tuning, a minor third is equal to three
semitone
A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically.
It is defined as the interval between two adjacent no ...
s, a ratio of 2
1/4:1 (about 1.189), or 300 cents, 15.64 cents narrower than the 6:5 ratio. In other
meantone tunings it is wider, and in
19 equal temperament it is very nearly the 6:5 ratio of just intonation; in more complex
schismatic temperaments, such as
53 equal temperament
In music, 53 equal temperament, called 53 TET, 53 EDO, or 53 ET, is the tempered scale derived by dividing the octave into 53 equal steps (equal frequency ratios). Each step represents a frequency ratio of 2, or 22.6415& ...
, the "minor third" is often significantly flat (being close to
Pythagorean tuning
Pythagorean tuning is a system of musical tuning in which the frequency ratios of all intervals are based on the ratio 3:2.Bruce Benward and Marilyn Nadine Saker (2003). ''Music: In Theory and Practice'', seventh edition, 2 vols. (Boston: M ...
()), although the "
augmented second" produced by such scales is often within ten cents of a pure 6:5 ratio. If a minor third is tuned in accordance with the fundamental of the
overtone series
A harmonic series (also overtone series) is the sequence of harmonics, musical tones, or pure tones whose frequency is an integer multiple of a '' fundamental frequency''.
Pitched musical instruments are often based on an acoustic resonator ...
, the result is a ratio of 19:16 or 297.51 cents (the nineteenth harmonic). The 12-TET minor third (300 cents) more closely approximates the nineteenth harmonic with only 2.49 cents error. M. Ergo mistakenly claimed that the nineteenth harmonic was the highest ever written, for the bass-trumpet in
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...
's ''
Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (1848 to 1874), when
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...
's Op. 86 ''Konzertstück'' for 4 Horns and Orchestra (1849) features the
twentieth harmonic
In classical music, a third is a musical interval encompassing three staff positions (see Interval number for more details), and the major third () is a third spanning four semitones. Forte, Allen (1979). ''Tonal Harmony in Concept and Pr ...
(four octaves and major third above the fundamental) in the first horn part three times.
Other pitch ratios are given related names, the
septimal minor third with ratio 7:6 and the tridecimal minor third with ratio 13:11 in particular.
The minor third is classed as an
imperfect consonance and is considered one of the most consonant intervals after the
unison
In music, unison is two or more musical parts that sound either the same pitch or pitches separated by intervals of one or more octaves, usually at the same time. ''Rhythmic unison'' is another term for homorhythm.
Definition
Unison or pe ...
,
octave
In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...
,
perfect fifth
In music theory, a perfect fifth is the musical interval corresponding to a pair of pitches with a frequency ratio of 3:2, or very nearly so.
In classical music from Western culture, a fifth is the interval from the first to the last of five ...
, and
perfect fourth
A fourth is a musical interval encompassing four staff positions in the music notation of Western culture, and a perfect fourth () is the fourth spanning five semitones (half steps, or half tones). For example, the ascending interval from C to th ...
.
The
sopranino saxophone
The sopranino saxophone is the second-smallest member of the saxophone family. It is tuned in the key of E, and sounds an octave higher than the alto saxophone. An F sopranino (an octave above the F alto (also called mezzo-soprano) saxophone) ...
and
E♭ clarinet sound in the
concert pitch ( C ) a minor third higher than the written pitch; therefore, to get the sounding pitch one must
transpose
In linear algebra, the transpose of a matrix is an operator which flips a matrix over its diagonal;
that is, it switches the row and column indices of the matrix by producing another matrix, often denoted by (among other notations).
The tr ...
the written pitch up a minor third. Instruments in A – most commonly the
A clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound.
Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...
, sound a minor third lower than the written pitch.
Pythagorean minor third

In
music theory, a ''semiditone'' (or ''Pythagorean minor third'') is the
interval 32:27 (approximately 294.13
cents). It is the minor third in
Pythagorean tuning
Pythagorean tuning is a system of musical tuning in which the frequency ratios of all intervals are based on the ratio 3:2.Bruce Benward and Marilyn Nadine Saker (2003). ''Music: In Theory and Practice'', seventh edition, 2 vols. (Boston: M ...
. The 32:27 Pythagorean minor third arises in the
5-limit
Five-limit tuning, 5-limit tuning, or 5-prime-limit tuning (not to be confused with 5-odd-limit tuning), is any system for tuning a musical instrument that obtains the frequency of each note by multiplying the frequency of a given reference note ...
justly tuned major scale between the 2nd and 4th degrees (in the C
major scale
The major scale (or Ionian mode) is one of the most commonly used musical scales, especially in Western music. It is one of the diatonic scales. Like many musical scales, it is made up of seven notes: the eighth duplicates the first at doub ...
, between D and F).
[ Paul, Oscar (1885). ]
A manual of harmony for use in music-schools and seminaries and for self-instruction
', p. 165. Theodore Baker, trans. G. Schirmer.
It can be thought of as two
octave
In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...
s minus three
justly tuned fifths. It is narrower than a justly tuned minor third by a
syntonic comma
In music theory, the syntonic comma, also known as the chromatic diesis, the Didymean comma, the Ptolemaic comma, or the diatonic comma is a small comma type interval between two musical notes, equal to the frequency ratio 81:80 (= 1.0125 ...
. Its inversion is a
Pythagorean major sixth
In music from Western culture, a sixth is a musical interval encompassing six note letter names or staff positions (see Interval number for more details), and the major sixth is one of two commonly occurring sixths. It is qualified as ''major ...
.
See also
*
Musical tuning
In music, there are two common meanings for tuning:
* Tuning practice, the act of tuning an instrument or voice.
* Tuning systems, the various systems of pitches used to tune an instrument, and their theoretical bases.
Tuning practice
Tuni ...
*
List of meantone intervals
*
Pythagorean interval
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Minor Third
Minor intervals
Thirds (music)
ru:Терция (интервал)#Разновидности терции