how Picardy third works

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Like I am 5 please, my teacher explained it to me like I’m an adult and it didn’t take

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Simple explanation: you have a song or piece of music. It’s in a minor key. Normally, you would end the song or piece on the primary minor chord of that key (the tonic.)

But sometimes, the minor sound feels too sad and you want something more uplifting. So you change the last chord of the music to a tonic major chord instead of the minor chord.

The difference between a major chord and a minor chord is in the third (major or minor third). So a lot of composers made that minor to major change and that changed third became known as a Picardy third.

Why Picardy? Because the person who named that in the 18th century thought he heard a that sound a lot in the Picardy region of France.

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