Easy definition for major and minor scales please?

[MaggieW]

I've googled but the definitions seem complicated, so can anyone give me a simple definition of a major and minor scale for a 9 y.o. please? TIA.

I'm not sure there is such a thing as a simple definition. Each type of scale is a defined series of intervals from one note to another. The definition is purely a convention of western classical music.

What instrument does your son/daughter play? The easiest way to picture the different between the scales is on a piano keyboard, where all the notes are a semi-tone apart (if you include black and white keys).

Major goes like this:
start note - up a tone - up another tone - up a semitone - up a tone - up a tone - up a tone - up a semi-tone

Harmonic minor (the simplest sort) goes:
start note - up a tone - up a semi-tone - up a tone - up a tone - up a semitone - up a tone and a half - up a semi-tone

Or you could get very simple and say "major sounds happy, minor sounds sad!"

Is this to help play them on an instrument? Or more general?

For an instrument, for the major you need to look at the key signature (sharps or flats given after the treble/bass clef), and observe it- bingo you have the scale, for minor scales, they are more complicated, for the harmonic minor you need to observe the key signature and raise the 7th note a semitone.

I'll try too! Imagine that the distance between one note (say C) and the same one the next octave up is a staircase. There are 6 whole steps in between, but at a couple of points, the steps are smaller - half steps (or semitones). The main difference between major and minor is where the little half steps are on the scale.
A major scale has steps with a whole tone (say C to D), then whole (D to E), then half (E to F), then whole, whole, half.
A minor scale is more complicated in that it has several possible forms. But most simply, a major scale has:
whole, whole, half; whole whole whole half tone as its steps. (just as ChickenKorma said in the tone/semitone language).
Minor scales have whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole, whole (natural minor) and variants for other minor scales.
And yes - the simplest is that minor scales sound sad. They are mainly sad because of the lowered third note (so the first two steps in pretty much every minor scale are a whole tone, then a half tone, so that the third note of the scale is lower than in the major scale). Hope this helps!

Quart circle,
C major-A minor
G major-E minor
D major-H minor
A major-F sharp minor
E major- C sharp minor
H major- G sharp minor
And so on, counting five tones upwards for majors, and from any given major counting three down to find equivalent minor.

Quint circle,
F major- D minor
B flat major- G minor
And so on, counting four tones upwards from C for majors and again three downwards to find equivalent minor, hope this makes sense.

Quart circle deals with sharps and Quint circle deals with flats.
For a very young pupil someone up the thread had already mentioned, majors sound happy and minors sad, it is a good way of explaining.
Child who already plays well should be touching on theory of music with their instrument teacher, understanding of scales and different tonalities is a sound base for harmony and counterpoint in music which is a very integral part of more advanced music education.

Sorry Quart circle for flats and Quint for sharps, I get confused as well

What are quarts and quints?

Thank you all. It's for a theory test as part of a guitar exam, although he plays the piano as well. I know he'll be nervous and wanted something succinct that he won't forget in the heat of the moment. Thank you again.

Good luck to your boy, he may find this helpful to print out and memorise, it clearly shows how majors(durr) and minors ( moll) work in relation to each other.
alles-uke.de/theory.htm

I would think his teacher should be able to advise how much he needs to remember. It may be as simple as "in the minor scale, the third note is a semi-tone lower than in the major and you have to add a semi-tone to the seventh note." Which is not a particularly robust definition, but would show that he knows what the difference is.

If it's a more advanced definition, I'd suggest he memorises "whole, whole, half; whole whole whole half" etc, as afussy suggested. Easier to recite than tones and semi-tones!

And thank you strictlovingmum - I have been singing and playing music for about 30 years now and I hadn't worked out that "durr" meant major! Have often seen it written and vaguely wondered what it meant