Chord
Three or more pitches sounded together, most often built by stacking thirds into a triad — and whether that triad sounds major (bright) or minor (dark).
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Chord
A chord is three or more pitches sounded at once. The workhorse of Western music is the simplest chord of all: the triad, three notes built by stacking two thirds on top of a root. Take a root, add the note a third above it, then a third above that, and you have spanned a perfect fifth from bottom to top — a stable, full-bodied sound.
Major versus minor
A third comes in two sizes, and which one you put on the bottom decides the whole mood of the chord:
- Major triad — a major third (4 semitones) then a minor third (3): intervals
0–4–7. Bright, open, resolved. C–E–G. - Minor triad — a minor third (3) then a major third (4): intervals
0–3–7. Darker, more pensive. C–E♭–G.
Both span the same perfect fifth (7 semitones); only the middle note moves, by a single semitone — yet that one semitone is the difference between sunshine and shadow. This is the cell from which all richer Harmony is grown.
Build a triad
Move the mouse to choose the root; the keyboard shows the resulting triad — root in blue, third in orange, fifth in green. Use the Major / minor button to flip the quality and watch only the middle note slide by a semitone.