Major Chords / Minor Chords

Tags:

Contents

2. Chord Tones and the Sound

From here, I’ll introduce some extra terms to describe chords.

Tones used to form a chord is called Chord Tones.

The bottom note of a chord, the “basement” of the tertian stack is called the Root. and the note above is 3rd, the one above it is then 5th. These are derived from its interval formed between the root.

In this text, chord tones are written with emphasis like Rt3^rd5^th.

Sound Comparison

OK now let’s compare the difference of 2 chord types, with its root set on the same pitch.

C major

C minor

Even though the difference is just the position of 3^rd by semitone, the outcome utterly changes! A major chord, with its 3^rd 4 semitones above Rt, sounds bright while a minor chord, with its 3^rd 3 semitones above Rt, sounds dark. This is exactly the same story as you’ve seen in the article “Two Tones Harmony”.

The top notes, 5^th, are both 7 semitones above, which has a clear and transparent sound quality, bringing thickness to the chord without disturbing the light/dark mood generated by 3^rd.

Please imagine that 3-tone harmonies are like addition or multiplication of 2-tone harmonies. So if you add any notes to a major/minor chord, their light/dark mood won’t change.

Chord Names for the Prime Chords

Now, I’m gonna display the prime chords again with their chord symbols.

Finally, it looks really like a “theory”! They look identical in musical score, but their chord types are divided into two—In the order “maj, min, min, maj, maj, min”.

If you master just these 6 chords with 2 types, that’s sufficient for songwriting! Though the number of chord types is just two, they all sound distinct when put in the contexts of a song. Throughout this chapter, we’ll continue to study these six.

Summary

“Major chords” and “minor chords” are the most prevalent chord types in popular music.
The tones consisting major/minor chords are called, from bottom to top, Rt, 3^rd and 5^th.
A chord name is composed of the root pitch name and the chord type.
The symbol “m” indicates “minor” and the void indicates “major”.

Continue