Day Five: Major and Minor Chords and their Progressions

This article will teach you how to write beautiful sounding chord progressions.

This post is part of 14 Days of Harmony, a free course for musicians who want to deepen their understanding of harmony, and learn how to develop their connection with sound as a result. You can view the entire course here.

For the best experience, listen with headphones.

A chord is simply a collection of 3 or more tones. Any collection of 3 notes is a chord. The connection of chords is what creates harmonic tension. 

As we remember from looking at the physics of sound and by examining the intervals, certain tone combinations are more consonant and harmonious than others. We've already done much of the heavy lifting!

Based on the natural overtone series, we know that the most harmonious new tones that go together with a fundamental tone is its fifth and third.

A triad consists of a root with the fifth and third.

You can form a triad on top of any note by considering that note a root, and then building a chord by adding the third and fifth above it. 

Figure 1. Each triad is composed of a root …