Wiktionary
n. 1 (context music English) The minor key with A as its tonic, consisting of the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. 2 (context music English) The minor chord with a root of A.
Wikipedia
A minor (abbreviated Am) is a minor scale based on A, consisting of the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has no flats and no sharps (see below: Scales and keys). However the harmonic minor scale raises the G to G.
Its relative major is C major, and its parallel major is A major.
Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with accidentals as necessary.
Johann Joachim Quantz considered A minor, along with C minor, much more suitable for expressing "the sad effect" than other minor keys (Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte traversiere zu spielen).
Whereas traditionally key signatures were cancelled with naturals whenever the new key signature had fewer sharps or flats than the old key signature, or had flats instead of sharps or vice versa (so, for example, D major changing to D minor would be notated with a key signature of F, C, and B at the change), in modern popular and commercial music, cancellation is only done when C major or A minor replaces another key.
Usage examples of "a minor".
She did not want to harm the bird, but the thing had already bloodied her and would not back off, so she conjured a minor Venca spell, catching the bird as it plummeted down, insensate.
Ted were just another character in the story, and a minor character at that.
Hugh could no longer be regarded as a minor nuisance, Augusta reflected.
And yes, there were certainly movie scenes in the offices looking out over the mines, the noise, the smoke, but this character Bagby, they remembered a minor character in the movie, kind of a straight man, a foil, short, fat, foul mouthed, a kind of a Punchinello, Oscar, real opera buffa, Bagby in one or two crude dimensions maybe, a stock character, a comic device.
Unwilling to risk his new empire by returning to Cross Creek as the war draws closer threatening both his wife and mother, only the Major is there recuperating from a minor wound with an abundance of drink when a marauding band abruptly materializes to shoot him dead after degrading him mercilessly, tormenting the older woman beyond endurance and then in a prolonged scene reveling in its own depiction of cruelty raping the younger one in almost clinical detail.
On the other hand, given the facts of a situation containing elements of duress, in other words of various pressures from family, friends and the community which a minor finds himself unable to resist, he has in effect been given a choice of evils by the defendant, and while his conduct may indicate his consent, the facts in the situation may persuade us otherwise.
It appeared as only a minor notation on the original Ildiran charts the Roamers had purchased long ago.
The attack on Relay had been a minor adjunct to the murder of Old One.
He also noted that a study in the spring of 1964, when Vietnam was a minor issue in the newspapers, showed that 53 percent of college-educated people were willing to send troops to Vietnam, but only 33 percent of grade school-educated people were so willing.
She was clearly the only one at court with any formal training, but his impression of her was one of a minor degree of talent, enough to teach children the rudiments of control, diagnose threshold sickness, ease a fever, or cast truthspell.
She pushed away the bundle of old letters, unable to face the new relatives and the paperwork from a minor accident Ana had had in Seattle.
The road was a minor one, and the cars only occasional, heard at a distance and swishing past to fade equally slowly in the other direction.
The wistful tone in his voice did him great credit: Most boys of fourteen, faced with the prospect of twelve years of responsibility for a minor sister, would feel more than mild regret.
An integral part of the court, albeit a minor one, he was, when he failed his duty, confronted by the single most important fact known to all bureaucrats of any nation or epoch: those above were not interested in excuses, only in results.
He suddenly remembered his station and more formally said, Besides, your Highness, we have a minor matter to finish discussing regarding the new border here in the West.