Chords can create emotion and atmosphere within music. Therefore, it’s essential that musicians understand how to utilize chords effectively within their compositions.
Major chords are known for their cheerful, uplifting sound, making them a staple in popular music genres such as pop or R&B. Their whole sounding chords can also help support melodies.
Root
A chord’s root note, also referred to as its foundation note, is where other third intervals stack upon it. For example, in C Major chord, its foundation note would be C while E and G comprise its other two notes. Note that its roots don’t need to be bass notes: any note can serve as its center.
A chord may include both sevenths and ninths as part of its structure, though minor six and major seven intervals are the most frequently utilized to add complexity and texture to its sound.
Musicians utilize these chords across a broad range of music from pop to classical. Daft Punk uses major progressions in their dance songs to give their songs an optimistic tone; similarly, simple changes in chord can elicit different emotional responses; perhaps this explains why we often associate certain chords with joy or sorrow.
Major Third
A major third is a musical interval that spans two whole steps or more and differs from its minor equivalent in that it covers more space; usually one whole step or semitone wider. You can recognize it by hearing familiar music such as C and E in “When The Saints Go Marching In”. This major third can easily be recognized.
Major intervals can be modified either by increasing their width by half steps, or decreasing it by semitones. Any major interval greater than an octave is known as a compound interval.
A major chord can also be expanded with additional notes to form what is known as a triad. Triads consist of three notes that comprise the chord, and can be constructed using any major scale degree; C major will use root note, major third interval relationship between its notes and perfect fifth as its basis. Any number of notes can be added while still maintaining this name for their triads.
Perfect Fifth
The perfect fifth is an interval in a major scale that is considered more consonant than unisons, perfect octaves, and augmented fifth. However, do not confuse this with the dissonant sounding “wolf fifth”, which occurs only under certain tuning systems (such as meantone temperament).
An expanded major chord can also be created by adding seventh or ninth intervals, often seen in jazz music. This type of chord symbol is commonly written “addX”, where “X” represents the number of additional notes added at the top of a triad triad.
C major 7th chords consist of C, E and G stacked one on top of another, but any major seventh chord can usually be played using either a b5 or #5. Which option you select ultimately comes down to whether the triad is in root position and whether its additional note clashes with its major third. Ear training and musical experience are often the best ways of deciding how best to interpret musical notation.
Inversions
Notes from a major chord can be rearranged into various kinds of chords by inverting major triads; most frequently used are inversions known as inversions of major triads – for instance a C major triad can be played either with its root at the bottom and its major third on top or its perfect fifth – both methods known as first inversion and second inversion, respectively. Melodic inversions are also an option – these are known as melodic inversions.
No matter its inversion, chords continue to serve their intended function in any key. This also holds true when formed from borrowed chords. A common way of noting inversions is using forward slash followed by the name of its bass note; for instance C/E. However, this method may also be applied when the tonic note of a chord such as F/G is absent in its bass note – such as being C/E instead.