Why do major scales sound happy? Why is minor sad?

Yes. but i'm not sure if the happy-sad association is an innate response in our brain structure or we've been conditioned after years of practice

because two of the notes are shifted down one half step, particularly important is that the third is shifted down a half step. This takes the base triad of the key sound deeper and more sombre as the base triad is 1-3-5, which would be C-E-G for C major and then turn into C-D#-G for C minor

youtube.com/watch?v=9rEqrPwVITY

this is the why.

anything else is nurturefag cope with the fact that our brain has clear aesthetic rules that are tied to survival strategies.

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It must be something evolutionary. Deep sounds linked to danger but higher bird-like pitches signalling safety and happiness.

The idea of minor scales being sad and major sacles being happy is cultural only. Other cultures do not interpret music in the same way.

No.

People cry in the minor chord and laugh in the major chord.

I assume it's an innate response. It's interesting though, because it's one of the animalistic responses we play into that isn't ooga booga sex and/or survival bs.

music is deeply tied to spiritual experience imo.

Absolutely. Are you the same user who you'd me before?

itt? no

Is essentially right. is essentially wrong.

You can't say one is objectively or universally associated with a certain mood, sure. That's mostly cultural. But there is a simple mathematical reason why major is less "tense". Major chords are a simple and natural mathematical relationship, while a minor chord is a little more complex. Some cultures, like ours, associate simple ratios with something happy or bright, like playing a note and the same note one octave above. Complex ratios are associated with harshness or darkness.

A major triad, not coincidentally, is what you get from the natural harmonics of playing a single note. If you vibrate a string at the frequency of C, the first 5 overtones contain the notes of the major scale, including some octaves.

Here's a good explanation: dalemcgowan.com/every-note-is-a-chord/

Simple ratios like 1/2 and 2/3 are easier for your brain to process and to see how the frequencies are connected to each other. Notes with a complex ratio like 57/89 are more difficult to relate, so it sounds dissonant. The simplest ratios are the natural harmonic overtones that happen automatically when things vibrate, and that's what the major scale is made from.

Basically, major isn't objectively happier, but it's objectively simpler and more physically natural, and it's very easy for culture and exposure to cause someone to associate simplicity and naturalness with pleasantness, even if it's not a given, since some cultures don't equate simple ratios with pleasantness

Honestly might actually be this
of course this too

our brains are wired to find dissonant sounds jarring. minor is dissonant. And intervals is how we notate what is dissonant and what is harmonious

>If you vibrate a string at the frequency of C, the first 5 overtones contain the notes of the major scale, including some octaves.
Sorry, what I meant is you get a C major scale. If you play A, you get an A major scale, etc. The actual note doesn't matter

Major chords are more consonant and have overtones that are less harmonically complex than minor chords, also the "beating" that occurs is less noticeable because the relationship between the harmonic overtones and the individual notes played is more synchronous, or something. I think most people subconsciously pick up on these subtleties even if they don't know how to play music. As harmony becomes more complex it starts to sound more cacophonous and just sound innately wrong, listen to something like the 2001 soundtrack for an example of something that I don't think you could really call "sad" so much as "incredibly tense"
I kind of agree with this

tense =/= sad
The guy you said is wrong is actually right.
Re-read the OP.

Do normal people prefer major or minor scales?

Normal people prefer a mix of both, as do abnormal people

dunno but critics prefer minor, you'll never get any cred if you only make positive music

unless you're Fiona Apple lmaooo

>When you think you know what you're talking about

It'd be C Eb G, not D#, brainlet. Same notes, huge difference.
And only one note is shifted down a half step.
The minor third makes it minor, the perfect fifth is the same in minor/major.
If they were both minor you'd have diminished.

this too bassically.
>tense =/= sad
guy never made that equivalence. but that simplicity is associated with pleasantness, and viceversa, which is right.

in fact id solve the tense/sad issue with the following: tense and sad are both adjectives that can describe minor chords or other complex harmonies. id say what tense and sad have in common is introspection, so maybe major makes us explore the exterior and feel expansive in its simplicity, while minor, diminished and other stuff makes us more aware of our internal states, which are never a single mood or emotion, but a complex interwoven system. ever seen a kid listen to music thats too weird or dissonant? they just switch and fuck off, or feel a bit scared. adults on the other hand actually feel sad or start recalling stuff that happened in their lives which they match to the sounds heard, hence why sad ballads are massively popular.

harmonic overtones is the clue btw.

youre so boring