Chord progressions are one of the main components of music; most songs rely on them and you have likely encountered them throughout your life!
Chords composed from major scale degrees generally produce happier tones. Furthermore, the order of chords can create either tension or resolution depending on their placement.
Triads
Triads are consonant three-note chords that form the basis for tonal music. Triads may be major, minor, diminished or augmented and their qualities vary according to how far from their root they extend; each quality differs based on whether its interval extends from root to third and fifth notes respectively.
To identify a triad, start by drawing the root note of a chord on a staff and then adding its third and fifth notes–for instance a D chord might contain F and A as its third and fifth notes respectively–to form its triad form and reveal its root note, quality, bass note (i.e. lowest sounding chord member), bass note or bass member.
Triads can be created on any scale degree. Just ensure the chord contains a root, third and perfect fifth note or use enharmonic equivalence to recreate it using any notes in the scale. Major triads tend to sound complete and resolved while minor ones sound less so – more melancholic perhaps; and augmented ones often remain dissonant without resolution.
Inversions
When we invert chords, we are simply moving the notes up or down across the fretboard to change its sound. Depending on how many notes make up a chord’s makeup, inversions may occur from time to time; three note triads might experience as few as one or as many as four changes of inversion.
Change a C Major triad from its root position to its first inversion is as straightforward as shifting its bottom note one octave higher; similarly, D Major chords get their second inversion by moving their bottom note up by an octave until C becomes E and G respectively.
Chord inversions add variety and make chord changes during songs easier, emphasizing melodic notes while creating shorter, less dramatic jumps between chords in the progression. Therefore, learning chord inversions is an integral component of major chord progression.
Major vs. Minor
People tend to perceive major chords as being upbeat while minor chords as being dark and sad, though this stereotype may not always hold true. Though major and minor chords have their own distinct harmonic languages – for instance REM’s song, “Everybody Hurts”, features both major and minor chords but produces an emotionally devastating song while upbeat songs from ABBA or Peggy Lee often include minor chords too.
A chord’s minor or major quality depends on its contents, their arrangement, and context. For instance, a minor triad employing 1st, flattened 3rd, and 5th notes from a major scale can sound less melancholy than its i-vi progression in classic pop, rock, R&B, and soul music. Each major key also has a relative minor that contains all of its notes but in an opposite order; A minor is C major’s relative minor and understanding these relationships is key as you master major chord progressions.
Scale Intervals
Like each major scale has a note formula, each chord also follows one; generally speaking, chords that start on either the second or fifth notes of a major scale are considered major chords, while those starting on either fourth or sixth notes are considered minor chords.
Intervals may either be harmonic or melodic in nature. Harmonic intervals produce sound together while melodic intervals produce it individually (such as major chords). The quality of an interval depends upon its size and whether or not it is perfect or major.
To determine the size of an interval, count lines and spaces between notes or use a table of interval sizes. Once this has been accomplished, imagine the bottom note in a major scale, and use this information to ascertain if its upper note appears in that key or not.
F-C interval is considered a perfect interval because they fall within the same key, while raising its top note by one half step to C# would increase it one whole step and become an augmented interval (meaning one whole step larger than perfect/major intervals).