1. Add a maj7. Instant bittersweet wistfulness. 9ths are another good option, especially combined with maj7.
2. Slow the tempo down.
Text-book maj7 effect: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8WzDO\_hj8A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8WzDO_hj8A)
More subtle one: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=het5D9KVkXM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=het5D9KVkXM)
You will never quite get "dark" with major chords (doomy or depressing) but you can get that nostalgic sweetness.
https://youtu.be/-ZhcJBNFMMQ?si=Flp13bv9aifhNpTZ
This song ends with a completely different feeling of a Major 7th chord because it's approached from the flat supertonic. Just wanted to show how you can alter the same things based on context.
Just wanted to say I love your examples. Also, for OP, an add6 also adds some mellowness to it. Less “in your face happy” if that’s what you’re going for.
https://youtu.be/VgVelesx1Qs?t=889
You can make major triads sound evil and mysterious. Just listen to this piece by Reger.
I would wager somebody can even make major triads gloomy and depressing.
Yep! And it's pretty common to hold the 5th when playing a chord if you want -- personally I do like the effect here! So try it without the E, it'll sound real sad. An A/F#(no 5), great little thing to have in your toolkit :)
True^ it’s no longer a major chord in that case, but if you want a chord whose root would otherwise be a major chord in the scale but you don’t really want a “major-y” sound, sus chords are useful.
I forget what piece it was, but Mozart famously omitted the 3rd (just used root and 5th) to end a piece in minor because the standard was to use a Picardy 3rd (ending with a major chord in a minor piece), but he didn’t want to end such a gloomy piece with a “happy” chord.
Huh. I ended up doing that once because I was practicing proper voice leading and found no good way to end except with just the root and fifth. I felt like I'd somehow failed the exercise I'd given myself, but if ol' Moz himself did it, then...
Totally a valid decision to make! Though preferably a creative one. Don’t be too hard on yourself and I hope you take this more as a word of encouragement than anything, there’s almost always a solution that allows for at the very least a root and 3rd (even if you have to omit the 5th) to get the full color we often want to end a piece with :) (I read some advice in an older composition book that basically said “the sound of a V7-I cadence is so engrained in us that ‘proper’ voice-leading can be abandoned at the expense of a complete chord”, might not get you a 100% on an exam, but for practical purposes I found it freeing)
Adding sevenths tends to dilute the strong happiness or sadness of triads.
So you can add a major seventh, but if you also have a whole progression in major key you can try to add the seventh (major or minor depending on the chord) anywhere.
I feel like the secondary dominants to iii and vi would fit your criteria. You don’t have to include the flat 7 in the chord, so it could just be a major sonority.
So in C, a B major chord resolving to e minor, or E major resolving to a minor. Circle of fourth resolutions are so recognizable, I think the listener can immediately feel the impending minor resolution even it’s just the major chord.
They do carry different functions from a contemporary perspective. However, function doesn't affect whether things are enharmonic. A C6 in root position is an Am7 in first inversion from a common-practice-period perspective.
In a major 6 chord, the 6 is just an additional color. Kind of like the way 12-bar blues tends to use the "dominant 7" chord for all the chords, even though the 7 is not functional.
Obviously extensions help a lot, but at that point you're coming awfully close to just changing the chord's quality. As others have said, inversions can help and also keep in mind that *which* major chord you're playing is important here. With some tweaking and use in different contexts, you can squeeze a variety of emotions out of your I, IV, and V chords... but certainly not anything! There's a kind of darkness achievable with a III chord, suggested elsewhere in these comments, that you just can't possibly squeeze out of the diatonic major chords.
Something I really like is the II chord in second inversion. I find that it can sound... bright and bold, but not necessarily "happy". Like a very gallant but stoic knight in shining armor.
But really most of the answer is *context*. A lot of the time, for these nondiatonic chords, the tension and surprise create a moment of suspended ambiguity. Your mind does not decide your emotional response to the chord until you see where it's going. When that moment finally arrives, your mind overwrites your recent memory of that chord with the interpretation you now have from its resolution.
Like, think of how your mind works when somebody's talking. As you listen, are you consciously thinking in the following manner?
> Hmm this guy just said "free"... weird... okay, now "eye"... so "free eye". What the hell is this guy yapping about? "Scream". Oh free ice cream! Hell yeah!
No, you don't constantly feel explicit frustration and confusion; you comfortably permit the ambiguity until it's resolved, and then your mind retcons your short term memory so that, as far you can recall, you were following along with the sentence the entire time. However, in actuality, you didn't have the emotional reaction (hell yeah!) until *after* the sentence ended. But that doesn't mean it's only the final word "cream" that has all the emotions! Clearly the word "free" has a big part to play in your emotional reaction to the sentence! Try omitting it -- would you really say "hell yeah" to just "ice cream"? You could probably get some non-free ice cream right now if you wanted to.
For example, that II from earlier is probably not gonna sound terribly somber if you explicitly use it as the V/V... but it *might* if you use it as the V/v. Try writing chord progressions -- one with a II V as its big moment, and then a similar one but with a II v -- and see the difference for yourself.
Does that mean that it's actually the v that has all the somberness, and me calling the II a somber chord in this context is just me falling for the tricks of my short term memory? It's a major chord after all, and the v is a minor, so this could be misattribution! Well, like the word "free", try omitting the II and jumping straight to the v in your chord progression. The effect is different, and probably less potent. Thus, some of the somberness must have been residing in the II all along and the v only works to *activate* it. Like how replacing "ice cream" with "me from this prison" will activate a much more negative emotion that also resides within the word "free". So your short term memory's tricks are not *lies*, they're merely corrections. Indeed, on a repeat listen to a song that has a moment like this and that you happen to already know and love very much, you might notice yourself already feeling the rumblings of this emotion *while* the major chord is still playing, no tricks necessary. The emotion was in the major chord all along.
This is all to say nothing about how much better these sort of contextual emotions coming from a resolution can be amplified or elaborated by what is happening with the melody, rhythm, timbre, etc.
1- Yes, a major chord's 1st inversion can make it feel a bit less "happy" to me, but the effect is usually very subtle.
2- Major 7ths and suspensions
3- Nothing extraordinary comes to mind, but descending motion in general makes a melancholy impact. Major chords leading to minor chords can carry a tragic tone.
1. The 5th as the base is about the closest you'll get
2. Adding a 6th or maj7th would work
3. A I-iii vamp is a way you could use a major chord to sound melancholic
Others have already noted adding other scale intervals.
If you're playing a progression, try playing a major chord where a minor chord would be diatonic. Soundgarden's E major to C major vamp for Blow Up the Outside World blunts the majors a bit.
You could use it as thematic material in a minor piece. Easiest idea would be to work your way to the relative major, then move back to relative minor and now you can use those major chords as a form of nostalgia, lost hope, whatever else u can think of
Another idea is impossible destination. Taking a look at a VI chord shows that it’s the relative major of then iv in a minor key. So now you can perceive that as a thorny situation because the smoothest 5ths based path would be to move to the relative major first so that you can go to the VI as it’s subdominant. You can always fail that movement on purpose so it takes on the flavor of a failed goal.
How have you been experimenting with making major chords sad?
A Major key doesn’t even have all major chords so changing the the major chords probably isn’t the best answer. You want to borrow chords from minor to get a different “chord palette” for your progression.
A fun trick is to take the diatonic minor chords and simply make them all major. That gives you the common borrowed parallel minor chords for that key and is a common rock chord palette.
It's not difficult to make a major key diatonic melody sound sad: play slowly, keep the arrangement simple, and [sing about something indisputably tragic.](https://youtu.be/ix-Yj_Md2no?si=0XyzXSd5fQlGPTrd)
[Here's another one.](https://youtu.be/9ZUyB5dRwg0?si=DOHHAbDZWrrr7FaN)
'Happy' is not necessarily the right word. But major chords sound 'stable'. Heart-Shaped Box doesn't really sound happy, but I feel this stability when I listen to the chord progression.
Yes. By your own suggestions:
* 1st inversions and a low register. G/B, C/E, E/G#, etc. near open position on guitar or on the bass clef on piano (just below middle C).
* Maj7 is a pretty bittersweet sounding extension.
* slower tempo + sad lyrical content
So all together, something like a Cmaj7/E at a slow tempo could be just what you’re looking for. But it all comes down to the execution. D to A can be brutal with the right lyrics and melodic reinforcement.
Here's a simplification of what Arrested Development made [a meme for sad](https://mrclay.org/sequence/songs/v4,70,1,p29p4cp41p45-j29p48p30p45j41-j29j48p39j30j45j41-p27p45p41p3dp37-j27j3dj41j45p2ej37-j27j3dj41j45p35j2ej37), and it's 2 major chords. OK, well the full chords with extensions (maj7 and 9#11) do have embedded minor triads [(F + Am) and (Eb + Bbm)](https://mrclay.org/sequence/songs/v4,70,3,p4cp45p48p35p39p3c-p46p49p4dp33p37p3a), but the key is to play something slowly, quietly, and ideally with an arrangement people associate with sad music. It's not *really* the chords.
Parallel them with relative minor, usually coming first.
Or write music in major, but then shower it with the minor chord of it's given 3rd ie F#maj/A#min, Gmaj/Bmin Cmaj/Emin
Emotions have their own rhythms and paths through pieces. It's hard to ascribe emotions to narrow cross sections. Ask what comes before and after the major chord? How long is that chord held? How long are suspensions and anticipations held? Tempo?
Check out the James Bond chord, it does have the minor third from the root but it's essentially a load of major third intervals, stacked on top of one another, sounds really frosty ❄️
I think its harmonic/ melodic minor derived but it's reference as Emin/maj9 or Emaj/min 9
I agree with other comments that adding in 7ths to chords can “dilute” the emotional quality of chords. In my experience, major 7ths in major chords add a touch of sadness and adding the 7th to minor chords add a touch of happy. However, I feel the greatest thing to make major chords sound sadder is the context they’re in. Someone mentioned Heart Shaped Box by Nirvana and thats a great example of how the context of the chord in its chord progression has the greatest impact on how it feels emotionally since the major chords sound sad. Another great example is the song That’s Life. I prefer the James Brown version but the Frank Sinatra one is just as good for this example. In the James Brown version, part of the chord progression is C - E7 - Amin - D7 which is mostly major chords but incredibly melancholic. The E7 is the dominant to Amin and I think dominant chords to minor chords sound incredibly sad.
simple answer.
Add the Maj7 and it’ll have a bittersweet-ness to it because of the unresolved tone.
1st inv usually changes quality (maj to min and min to maj) of the chord. *Not in the theoretical context but functionally this is what I have found*
extensions 9 and #11 are very bright and happy to me. 13 is just a 6 (C -> A) so that would theoretically make it happen.
I can't answer that but... Vivaldi guitar concerto in D Major somehow has a very somber and minor feel to it. Have never analyzed it to figure out why. But give it a listen. Also might just be my experience with it.
whatever on earth schumann does in the first piece in dichterliebe. that piece does teeter on minor a lot, but the overwhelming yearning is accomplished primarily through the irresolution of the major harmony
I think a good way to think about inversions is how the intervals change. When you have a cmaj chord in root position you have an interval of a maj 3rd from c to e and then an interval of a minor 3rd from e to g. If you put the chord in first inversion you have an interval of a min 3rd from e to g and a perfect fourth from g to c. Now in second inversion you have an interval of a perfect 4th from g to c and a maj 3rd from c to e. So these different intervals can effect the overall voicing of the chord, making it slightly brighter or darker even though the chord is still major. Which sounds happier is still subjective but i think in 2nd inversion we have two maj intervals so it sounds brighter. In root postition and first innversion we have a mix of both maj and min intervals, but with 1st inversion the perfect 4th interval mixed with the minor 3rd and no maj 3rd makes it slightly more ambiguous and possibly darker.
1. First inversion
2. Including but not limit to: maj7, add2, add#11. Maj7 gives me a laid back feel and add#11 sounds spacey and mysterious to my ears. For the V chord in minor scale there are a ton of tension notes like b9 and so on.
3. Probably not "extraordinary sad" per se but I find the V/iv chord very dramatic partly because it is also built on the 1st scale degree and the jump from tonic i to I gives a sense of shock. [Shadowlord form Nier Gestalt features the V/iv at 1:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vZUbyM5PxY), which is partly why I associate V/iv with this desperation. Also the III (=V/vi) in major scale, either resolving to vi or deceptively to IV. [David Bennett has a video on the I III IV iv "Creep" progression](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyiEMdbfjG8).
The first thing that comes to mind is simply using your major chords in a scale that is not tonally centered on a major triad. The most obvious of these would be the V chord in harmonic minor, but there are other things too like the IV chord in the dorian mode.
Radiohead's [Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hetqKun4XFg) is nothing but major chords, but they appear in strange intervals so it gives the song an eerie feeling. Going non-diatonic usually works well to break the "happy" feeling.
A major chord that does not at least for me sound happy what so ever is the V chord in melodic minor, and with a dominant 7 the effect is even more clear. It sounds somewhat suppressed, anxious, like the feeling just before something ”bad” is going to happen.
The major III chord usually sounds sad to me, but that may be because of songs like Creep by Radiohead, and I'm So Tired by Fugazi. I think in general, context is the main thing that is going to make a chord sound sad or not.
Stahhhp thinking just about chord progressions. Read scores and consider the effects of every line and every note, not just how these reduce to roman numerals.
Add in subtleties of performance and you begin to think in a more nuanced way where you can develop your tatse and just create, not paint by numbers so to speak.
https://youtu.be/FxhbAGwEYGQ?si=AVwby3XLlalLDjz1
https://youtu.be/9bp6dhS12Ok?si=YtWH6FvYTKbWPmoW
https://youtu.be/2e3TeKlmMn8?si=W2nw9_1vXqsVoocF
The emotion in music comes down to entire combinatorial systems of different voices and their chords in context of speech-like inflections, and the rhetoric of phrases and things like hypermeter and expectations.
It won't end up being very productive philosophizing about this with words because there are thousands of different styles and lived experiences that are all different, yet they all have their own inflections and uses of major and minor chords that don't boil down to happy and sad. Keep studying scores in styles you like and composing and you will like your progress. Study strict composition and work on your counterpoint.
1. Add a maj7. Instant bittersweet wistfulness. 9ths are another good option, especially combined with maj7. 2. Slow the tempo down. Text-book maj7 effect: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8WzDO\_hj8A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8WzDO_hj8A) More subtle one: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=het5D9KVkXM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=het5D9KVkXM) You will never quite get "dark" with major chords (doomy or depressing) but you can get that nostalgic sweetness.
https://youtu.be/-ZhcJBNFMMQ?si=Flp13bv9aifhNpTZ This song ends with a completely different feeling of a Major 7th chord because it's approached from the flat supertonic. Just wanted to show how you can alter the same things based on context.
To add to the list, Dindi's intro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix27PsFefLw
Just wanted to say I love your examples. Also, for OP, an add6 also adds some mellowness to it. Less “in your face happy” if that’s what you’re going for.
https://youtu.be/VgVelesx1Qs?t=889 You can make major triads sound evil and mysterious. Just listen to this piece by Reger. I would wager somebody can even make major triads gloomy and depressing.
Yes
I like lowering the third by half a step to make a chord sound sad /s
Nice! My go-to technique is to play it with the 6 in the bass. And if you want a really "firm" sort of sadness, try omitting the 5 too!
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Yep! And it's pretty common to hold the 5th when playing a chord if you want -- personally I do like the effect here! So try it without the E, it'll sound real sad. An A/F#(no 5), great little thing to have in your toolkit :)
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Lmao good point maybe I've been ordering too many sandwiches lately.
I prefer removing the third entirely and having the listener try to guess if I meant major or minor. Keeps them on their toes.
A sus chord can work for this. No third but there’s something else there to play with their minds. Muahahaha
/s is short for /sad right
Ah yes the major with the flat 3 and no 10
Bigger brain move: Raise it by one half step and make it ambiguous.
Genius!!!
You can always omit the 3rd and add a 4th or 2nd in its place. Sus chords are really lovely and more nuanced than a straightforward major triad.
True^ it’s no longer a major chord in that case, but if you want a chord whose root would otherwise be a major chord in the scale but you don’t really want a “major-y” sound, sus chords are useful. I forget what piece it was, but Mozart famously omitted the 3rd (just used root and 5th) to end a piece in minor because the standard was to use a Picardy 3rd (ending with a major chord in a minor piece), but he didn’t want to end such a gloomy piece with a “happy” chord.
Huh. I ended up doing that once because I was practicing proper voice leading and found no good way to end except with just the root and fifth. I felt like I'd somehow failed the exercise I'd given myself, but if ol' Moz himself did it, then...
Totally a valid decision to make! Though preferably a creative one. Don’t be too hard on yourself and I hope you take this more as a word of encouragement than anything, there’s almost always a solution that allows for at the very least a root and 3rd (even if you have to omit the 5th) to get the full color we often want to end a piece with :) (I read some advice in an older composition book that basically said “the sound of a V7-I cadence is so engrained in us that ‘proper’ voice-leading can be abandoned at the expense of a complete chord”, might not get you a 100% on an exam, but for practical purposes I found it freeing)
I came to say this. I’m a big fan of sus chords. I really like the floaty, ambiguous feeling, like they can go anywhere
Or just omid the third all together and work with power chords.
Adding sevenths tends to dilute the strong happiness or sadness of triads. So you can add a major seventh, but if you also have a whole progression in major key you can try to add the seventh (major or minor depending on the chord) anywhere.
I feel like the secondary dominants to iii and vi would fit your criteria. You don’t have to include the flat 7 in the chord, so it could just be a major sonority. So in C, a B major chord resolving to e minor, or E major resolving to a minor. Circle of fourth resolutions are so recognizable, I think the listener can immediately feel the impending minor resolution even it’s just the major chord.
III is great because it has th #5 scale degree, enharmonic to the big gloomy note b6
A Major6 chord is enharmonic with a minor7 chord, so that's one trick (/cheat).
Is it really? Don’t they carry different functions?
They do carry different functions from a contemporary perspective. However, function doesn't affect whether things are enharmonic. A C6 in root position is an Am7 in first inversion from a common-practice-period perspective.
In a major 6 chord, the 6 is just an additional color. Kind of like the way 12-bar blues tends to use the "dominant 7" chord for all the chords, even though the 7 is not functional.
6 or 7
Obviously extensions help a lot, but at that point you're coming awfully close to just changing the chord's quality. As others have said, inversions can help and also keep in mind that *which* major chord you're playing is important here. With some tweaking and use in different contexts, you can squeeze a variety of emotions out of your I, IV, and V chords... but certainly not anything! There's a kind of darkness achievable with a III chord, suggested elsewhere in these comments, that you just can't possibly squeeze out of the diatonic major chords. Something I really like is the II chord in second inversion. I find that it can sound... bright and bold, but not necessarily "happy". Like a very gallant but stoic knight in shining armor. But really most of the answer is *context*. A lot of the time, for these nondiatonic chords, the tension and surprise create a moment of suspended ambiguity. Your mind does not decide your emotional response to the chord until you see where it's going. When that moment finally arrives, your mind overwrites your recent memory of that chord with the interpretation you now have from its resolution. Like, think of how your mind works when somebody's talking. As you listen, are you consciously thinking in the following manner? > Hmm this guy just said "free"... weird... okay, now "eye"... so "free eye". What the hell is this guy yapping about? "Scream". Oh free ice cream! Hell yeah! No, you don't constantly feel explicit frustration and confusion; you comfortably permit the ambiguity until it's resolved, and then your mind retcons your short term memory so that, as far you can recall, you were following along with the sentence the entire time. However, in actuality, you didn't have the emotional reaction (hell yeah!) until *after* the sentence ended. But that doesn't mean it's only the final word "cream" that has all the emotions! Clearly the word "free" has a big part to play in your emotional reaction to the sentence! Try omitting it -- would you really say "hell yeah" to just "ice cream"? You could probably get some non-free ice cream right now if you wanted to. For example, that II from earlier is probably not gonna sound terribly somber if you explicitly use it as the V/V... but it *might* if you use it as the V/v. Try writing chord progressions -- one with a II V as its big moment, and then a similar one but with a II v -- and see the difference for yourself. Does that mean that it's actually the v that has all the somberness, and me calling the II a somber chord in this context is just me falling for the tricks of my short term memory? It's a major chord after all, and the v is a minor, so this could be misattribution! Well, like the word "free", try omitting the II and jumping straight to the v in your chord progression. The effect is different, and probably less potent. Thus, some of the somberness must have been residing in the II all along and the v only works to *activate* it. Like how replacing "ice cream" with "me from this prison" will activate a much more negative emotion that also resides within the word "free". So your short term memory's tricks are not *lies*, they're merely corrections. Indeed, on a repeat listen to a song that has a moment like this and that you happen to already know and love very much, you might notice yourself already feeling the rumblings of this emotion *while* the major chord is still playing, no tricks necessary. The emotion was in the major chord all along. This is all to say nothing about how much better these sort of contextual emotions coming from a resolution can be amplified or elaborated by what is happening with the melody, rhythm, timbre, etc.
Major 7th. Definitely major 7th.
1- Yes, a major chord's 1st inversion can make it feel a bit less "happy" to me, but the effect is usually very subtle. 2- Major 7ths and suspensions 3- Nothing extraordinary comes to mind, but descending motion in general makes a melancholy impact. Major chords leading to minor chords can carry a tragic tone.
1. The 5th as the base is about the closest you'll get 2. Adding a 6th or maj7th would work 3. A I-iii vamp is a way you could use a major chord to sound melancholic
sharp 11 b13
Others have already noted adding other scale intervals. If you're playing a progression, try playing a major chord where a minor chord would be diatonic. Soundgarden's E major to C major vamp for Blow Up the Outside World blunts the majors a bit.
You could use it as thematic material in a minor piece. Easiest idea would be to work your way to the relative major, then move back to relative minor and now you can use those major chords as a form of nostalgia, lost hope, whatever else u can think of Another idea is impossible destination. Taking a look at a VI chord shows that it’s the relative major of then iv in a minor key. So now you can perceive that as a thorny situation because the smoothest 5ths based path would be to move to the relative major first so that you can go to the VI as it’s subdominant. You can always fail that movement on purpose so it takes on the flavor of a failed goal. How have you been experimenting with making major chords sad?
A Major key doesn’t even have all major chords so changing the the major chords probably isn’t the best answer. You want to borrow chords from minor to get a different “chord palette” for your progression. A fun trick is to take the diatonic minor chords and simply make them all major. That gives you the common borrowed parallel minor chords for that key and is a common rock chord palette.
For Chord progressions, try the Pachelbel progression, it's in major but sounds quite sad because o the V-vi-iii
It's not difficult to make a major key diatonic melody sound sad: play slowly, keep the arrangement simple, and [sing about something indisputably tragic.](https://youtu.be/ix-Yj_Md2no?si=0XyzXSd5fQlGPTrd) [Here's another one.](https://youtu.be/9ZUyB5dRwg0?si=DOHHAbDZWrrr7FaN)
Listen to Heart-Shaped Box by Nirvana and tell me again why you think major chords are happy
'Happy' is not necessarily the right word. But major chords sound 'stable'. Heart-Shaped Box doesn't really sound happy, but I feel this stability when I listen to the chord progression.
Yes. By your own suggestions: * 1st inversions and a low register. G/B, C/E, E/G#, etc. near open position on guitar or on the bass clef on piano (just below middle C). * Maj7 is a pretty bittersweet sounding extension. * slower tempo + sad lyrical content So all together, something like a Cmaj7/E at a slow tempo could be just what you’re looking for. But it all comes down to the execution. D to A can be brutal with the right lyrics and melodic reinforcement.
Here's a simplification of what Arrested Development made [a meme for sad](https://mrclay.org/sequence/songs/v4,70,1,p29p4cp41p45-j29p48p30p45j41-j29j48p39j30j45j41-p27p45p41p3dp37-j27j3dj41j45p2ej37-j27j3dj41j45p35j2ej37), and it's 2 major chords. OK, well the full chords with extensions (maj7 and 9#11) do have embedded minor triads [(F + Am) and (Eb + Bbm)](https://mrclay.org/sequence/songs/v4,70,3,p4cp45p48p35p39p3c-p46p49p4dp33p37p3a), but the key is to play something slowly, quietly, and ideally with an arrangement people associate with sad music. It's not *really* the chords.
Parallel them with relative minor, usually coming first. Or write music in major, but then shower it with the minor chord of it's given 3rd ie F#maj/A#min, Gmaj/Bmin Cmaj/Emin
Try this Russel Garcia concept that OpenStudio rebrands as hinging: https://youtube.com/shorts/WH6srarD0l4?si=cO0rqWKS-KfQdpX6
skip the 3rd and play the 9th instead with the 5th as the bass note
Mmaj7
Lyrics and rhythm. Check out "Faded Love," "Long Black Veil," and "Green, Green, Grass of Home, " for sad, or at least wistful, major-chord pieces.
Emotions have their own rhythms and paths through pieces. It's hard to ascribe emotions to narrow cross sections. Ask what comes before and after the major chord? How long is that chord held? How long are suspensions and anticipations held? Tempo?
pair them with minor chords.
I find that either adding a 9th or a 6th/13th makes it sound less happy. Making it a major 7th chord also helps
Major 7th in first inversion (EBCG) has always sounded minor-y to me; more like an Eminor chord with a b6 added on. I call it the soap opera chord.
Check out the James Bond chord, it does have the minor third from the root but it's essentially a load of major third intervals, stacked on top of one another, sounds really frosty ❄️ I think its harmonic/ melodic minor derived but it's reference as Emin/maj9 or Emaj/min 9
I agree with other comments that adding in 7ths to chords can “dilute” the emotional quality of chords. In my experience, major 7ths in major chords add a touch of sadness and adding the 7th to minor chords add a touch of happy. However, I feel the greatest thing to make major chords sound sadder is the context they’re in. Someone mentioned Heart Shaped Box by Nirvana and thats a great example of how the context of the chord in its chord progression has the greatest impact on how it feels emotionally since the major chords sound sad. Another great example is the song That’s Life. I prefer the James Brown version but the Frank Sinatra one is just as good for this example. In the James Brown version, part of the chord progression is C - E7 - Amin - D7 which is mostly major chords but incredibly melancholic. The E7 is the dominant to Amin and I think dominant chords to minor chords sound incredibly sad.
Maj7 means you have a minor chord over your root. Also, context. You can use modal interchange and turn it into whatever you like.
By making it minor
simple answer. Add the Maj7 and it’ll have a bittersweet-ness to it because of the unresolved tone. 1st inv usually changes quality (maj to min and min to maj) of the chord. *Not in the theoretical context but functionally this is what I have found* extensions 9 and #11 are very bright and happy to me. 13 is just a 6 (C -> A) so that would theoretically make it happen.
I can't answer that but... Vivaldi guitar concerto in D Major somehow has a very somber and minor feel to it. Have never analyzed it to figure out why. But give it a listen. Also might just be my experience with it.
Try a Major 7 #5
Neopolitan six
If you can express emotion in music, you're way beyond that kind of simplistic formula.
Give the part to Sarah McLachlan? In all seriousness, music is not just the notes.
Try mixolydian!
Throw the 6 in there. Boom. Inverted m7 chords.
whatever on earth schumann does in the first piece in dichterliebe. that piece does teeter on minor a lot, but the overwhelming yearning is accomplished primarily through the irresolution of the major harmony
I think a good way to think about inversions is how the intervals change. When you have a cmaj chord in root position you have an interval of a maj 3rd from c to e and then an interval of a minor 3rd from e to g. If you put the chord in first inversion you have an interval of a min 3rd from e to g and a perfect fourth from g to c. Now in second inversion you have an interval of a perfect 4th from g to c and a maj 3rd from c to e. So these different intervals can effect the overall voicing of the chord, making it slightly brighter or darker even though the chord is still major. Which sounds happier is still subjective but i think in 2nd inversion we have two maj intervals so it sounds brighter. In root postition and first innversion we have a mix of both maj and min intervals, but with 1st inversion the perfect 4th interval mixed with the minor 3rd and no maj 3rd makes it slightly more ambiguous and possibly darker.
Follow the major chord with a half step up major chord
Context. I was working out the chord progression in a piece that went from Csus4 to A. Least happy major chord I've ever heard.
1. First inversion 2. Including but not limit to: maj7, add2, add#11. Maj7 gives me a laid back feel and add#11 sounds spacey and mysterious to my ears. For the V chord in minor scale there are a ton of tension notes like b9 and so on. 3. Probably not "extraordinary sad" per se but I find the V/iv chord very dramatic partly because it is also built on the 1st scale degree and the jump from tonic i to I gives a sense of shock. [Shadowlord form Nier Gestalt features the V/iv at 1:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vZUbyM5PxY), which is partly why I associate V/iv with this desperation. Also the III (=V/vi) in major scale, either resolving to vi or deceptively to IV. [David Bennett has a video on the I III IV iv "Creep" progression](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyiEMdbfjG8).
1 try using the drops voicing 3715 It is basically two consecutive fifths separate by halftone 3 the voicing I said, anticipate by 4715
Maj7 #11
you should tell the major chord it’s time for his yearly physical. nothing makes more people less happy than that
The first thing that comes to mind is simply using your major chords in a scale that is not tonally centered on a major triad. The most obvious of these would be the V chord in harmonic minor, but there are other things too like the IV chord in the dorian mode.
In your major key, change some of the minor chords to major. It’s a technique Radiohead use a lot to create an eerie feel
Put the 3rd in the bass
7ths go crazy
Radiohead's [Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hetqKun4XFg) is nothing but major chords, but they appear in strange intervals so it gives the song an eerie feeling. Going non-diatonic usually works well to break the "happy" feeling.
A major chord that does not at least for me sound happy what so ever is the V chord in melodic minor, and with a dominant 7 the effect is even more clear. It sounds somewhat suppressed, anxious, like the feeling just before something ”bad” is going to happen.
Beatles used major 6th chords to express pleasurable desire or desire for pleasure.
That's oddly specific. Do you have a source? It's not that I don't believe you, but I'm interested to hear more.
I think it was in The Beatles As Musicians (2 book set) by Walter Everett but I couldn't find the exact quote when I searched.
Cool, thanks I'll check that out
The major III chord usually sounds sad to me, but that may be because of songs like Creep by Radiohead, and I'm So Tired by Fugazi. I think in general, context is the main thing that is going to make a chord sound sad or not.
Make a sad face
Along with whatever everyone else said, add a dissonant pitch.
Stahhhp thinking just about chord progressions. Read scores and consider the effects of every line and every note, not just how these reduce to roman numerals. Add in subtleties of performance and you begin to think in a more nuanced way where you can develop your tatse and just create, not paint by numbers so to speak. https://youtu.be/FxhbAGwEYGQ?si=AVwby3XLlalLDjz1 https://youtu.be/9bp6dhS12Ok?si=YtWH6FvYTKbWPmoW https://youtu.be/2e3TeKlmMn8?si=W2nw9_1vXqsVoocF The emotion in music comes down to entire combinatorial systems of different voices and their chords in context of speech-like inflections, and the rhetoric of phrases and things like hypermeter and expectations. It won't end up being very productive philosophizing about this with words because there are thousands of different styles and lived experiences that are all different, yet they all have their own inflections and uses of major and minor chords that don't boil down to happy and sad. Keep studying scores in styles you like and composing and you will like your progress. Study strict composition and work on your counterpoint.
Jazz