Could somebody give me a really basic, "for dummies" style explanation of the difference between major and minor keys?

[turquoise]

Is it just that minor plays more flats?

Thanks anyway!
I think it will really appeal to ds, the sort of mathematical structure of it.

as far as I remember from dim and distant music theory lessons, major and minor scales simply follow a certain pattern of tone/semitone intervals (as described below). The number of flats/sharps or black keys/white keys is irrelevant - A minor has no flats or sharps and is played entirely on the white keys of a piano!

..apart from G Sharp space donkey - if people can be pedantic about apostrophes then I can be about scales!

does G sharp minor deviate from the usual interval pattern then? it's been years since I did music and no piano to hand to try it out with!

No I mean there's a G sharp in A minor!

ah I see, but there are no sharps or flats in the key signature are there?

no, because it's the relative minor of C major which has no sharps/flats in the key sig.

Yes it's coming back to me now

But the point I was making is that in defining "what is a minor scale", the number of sharps/flats or black/white keys are red herrings. It's the pattern of intervals that matter - am I right?

It is the pattern of intervals, yes, as long as there is one of every type of note (i.e. C, D E etc) - given that there are enharmonic equivalents (i.e. B=C flat) it's notjust the interval but also the note 'name' that matters.