minor

(noun)

The determinant of some smaller square matrix, cut down from matrix $A$ by removing one or more of its rows or columns.

Related Terms

Examples of minor in the following topics:

  • Relative Minor and Major Keys

    • Each minor key shares a key signature with a major key.
    • A minor key is called the relative minor of the major key that has the same key signature.
    • These useful accidentals are featured in the melodic minor and harmonic minor scales.
    • For example, C minor has the same key signature as E flat major, since E flat is a minor third higher than C.
    • C minor is the relative minor of E flat major.

  • Harmonic and Melodic Minor Scales

    • All of the scales above are natural minor scales.
    • They contain only the notes in the minor key signature.
    • Melodies in minor keys often use this particular pattern of accidentals, so instrumentalists find it useful to practice melodic minor scales.
    • Listen to the differences between the natural minor (http://cnx.org/content/m10856/latest/tonminnatural.mp3), harmonic minor (http://cnx.org/content/m10856/latest/tonminharmonic.mp3), and melodic minor (http://cnx.org/content/m10856/latest/tonminmelodic.mp3) scales.
    • Rewrite each scale from Figure 4.23 as an ascending harmonic minor scale.

  • Minorities, Women, and Children

    • Minorities, women, and children are often the target of specific social policies.
    • Minorities, women, and children are often the target of specific social policies.
    • One major, particularly controversial policy targeting minority groups is affirmative action.
    • The Civil Rights Movement attempted to increase rights for minorities within the U.S.
    • Discuss government social policy toward minorities, women and children in the United States

  • Jazz and "Dorian Minor"

    • One of the most useful of these is the scale based on the dorian mode, which is often called the dorian minor, since it has a basically minor sound.
    • Like any minor scale, dorian minor may start on any note, but like dorian mode, it is often illustrated as natural notes beginning on d.
    • Comparing this scale to the natural minor scale makes it easy to see why the dorian mode sounds minor; only one note is different.
    • The "dorian minor" can be written as a scale of natural notes starting on d.
    • Any scale with this interval pattern can be called a "dorian minor scale".

  • Minor Scales

    • Minor scales sound different from major scales because they are based on a different pattern of intervals.
    • Just as it did in major scales, starting the minor scale pattern on a different note will give you a different key signature, a different set of sharps or flats.
    • The scale that is created by playing all the notes in a minor key signature is a natural minor scale.
    • To create a natural minor scale, start on the tonic note and go up the scale using the interval pattern: whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step.
    • For each note below, write a natural minor scale, one octave, ascending (going up) beginning on that note.

  • Music in a Minor Key

    • But music that is in D minor will have a different quality, because the notes in the minor scale follow a different pattern and so have different relationships with each other.
    • Music in minor keys has a different sound and emotional feel, and develops differently harmonically.
    • So you can't, for example, transpose a piece from C major to D minor (or even to C minor) without changing it a great deal.
    • Music that is in a minor key is sometimes described as sounding more solemn, sad, mysterious, or ominous than music that is in a major key.
    • To hear some simple examples in both major and minor keys, see Major Keys and Scales.

  • Cofactors, Minors, and Further Determinants

    • The cofactor of an entry $(i,j)$ of a matrix $A$ is the signed minor of that matrix.
    • To know what the signed minor is, we need to know what the minor of a matrix is.
    • Minors obtained by removing just one row and one column from square matrices (first minors) are required for calculating matrix cofactors.
    • The determinant of any matrix can be found using its signed minors.
    • Explain how to use minor and cofactor matrices to calculate determinants

  • Minor scales

  • The Circle-of-Fifths Progression (In Minor)

  • Minority Groups

    • The term "minority" is applied to various groups who hold few or no positions of power in a given society.
    • Minority group status is also categorical in nature: an individual who exhibits the physical or behavioral characteristics of a given minority group will be accorded the status of that group and be subject to the same treatment as other members of that minority group.
    • In addition to long-established ethnic minority populations in various nation-states, ethnic minorities may consist of more recent migrant, indigenous, or landless nomadic communities residing within, or between, a particular national territory.
    • The disability rights movement has contributed to an understanding of people with disabilities as a minority or a coalition of minorities who are disadvantaged by society, not just as people who are disadvantaged by their impairments.
    • Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson discusses minority health research at the National Institute of Health.