Many listeners accustomed to Western music may perceive major chord progressions as joyful while minor chords sound melancholic, though this doesn’t result from how the notes sound but instead from cultural associations formed over time.
One study suggests that people feel their happiest when the major 7th chord is associated with positive words such as ‘life’ or ‘god’.
Root note
Root notes serve as the base of any chord, providing stability for its other components. In major chords, G is usually the root note and this tone typically creates feelings of happiness and joy; C major chords with an E on top often provide this same positive energy and can even bring love and peace.
Similar to B major chords, D major chords can also be emotionally elevating and inspiring; it can evoke feelings of hope, trust, and faith. A D major chord, however, can be more melancholy and reflective, provoking feelings of sadness or depression.
However, not everyone relates chord progressions with particular moods. For instance, people from communities in Papua New Guinea who have limited exposure to Western music do not show the same emotional responses when hearing major and minor chords; suggesting that our response to musical sounds may be more culturally determined than previously assumed.
Major third
Music is all about patterns, and this holds especially true when discussing major and minor chords. One major distinction between major and minor chords lies in their respective thirds – which has the power to either give hope or create despair. Understanding these variations allows you to make informed choices when selecting chords and keys for compositions.
Major thirds can be found nearer the start of the harmonic overtone series, making them sound brighter than their minor counterparts. But this isn’t the only reason that major chords seem happier than minor ones!
Adam Neely, a guitar instructor and composer, believes the difference lies with intervals. Our brains perceive wider intervals as brighter; therefore a major chord with a major third may sound brighter than one with minor third.
Perfect fifth
The perfect fifth is an interval that is 7 frets high (3 and a half tones higher than its root note), often associated with musical consonance and more reliable than lesser intervals such as diminished fifth or augmented fifth.
Perfect fifths provide a sense of harmony and equilibrium that’s ideal for power chords; their soothing sound creates full and powerful sounds.
As well as the major third, a chord’s voicing also depends on its perfect fifth. A major chord with a perfect fifth is known as a major triad; to create one simply select three notes from the scale a fifth apart and play them all at the same time – creating rich and beautiful harmony! Perfect fifths also add weight and energy to a chord’s sound; these make for more powerful sounding chords than ones with smaller intervals like minor second or minor sixth intervals.
Major triad
A major chord has an appealing sound: complete, resolved and happy. It is one of the most stable and satisfying chords in Western music; minor chords lack this stability and resolution due to dissonant harmonies; furthermore minor triads have flattened fifths between third and root that provide them with more of a melancholic sound than major ones.
Major triads consist of three notes, which are known as the root, major third and perfect fifth respectively. These intervals are derived from western musical theory’s circle of fifths. When added together they create chords with unique names and sounds.
Researchers studying chords and emotions conducted a research study which discovered that major chords produced the strongest emotional impact when used with endearing words such as ‘baby’ or’sweet’; major seventh chords on the other hand added dramatic depth when coupled with negative words such as ‘die’ or ‘hell’.