Dave Wirth
To be extremely simplistic there are two types of chords that are used far more than any other, at least in pop music. One is a major chord, one is a minor chord. When I say major or minor, what I am referring to is what music theorists would label "the quality" of a chord. Is the chord major? It's of major quality. Is the chord minor? It's of minor quality. And so on. Simply, musicians call a chord by it's quality (If you are a guitarist, you likely use this system.). The question remains however: What makes a chord major or minor?
There are three notes to every major or minor chord, and it doesn't matter how many times they are doubled. If you play guitar and strum an E minor chord, it will have the notes E - B - E - G - B - E. See how the note "E" is tripled? Does that make it a different chord? Not really. If I took the repeated notes out of the chord, what am I left with is E - G - B. Three notes. It's the same for major chords, so E Major on a guitar is typically played as: E - B - E - G# - B - E. Taking out the extras: E - G# - B.
Do you see the difference between these two chords? It's the second note, or what is commonly referred to as the "Third." It's a bit of a tangent to go into why it is called the "third," for now. The important point is that the minor chord has a "G" for a third, and the major chord has a "G#" (pronounced "G Sharp") for a third. This denotes whether or not the chord has a "Major Third" (like G#) or a "Minor Third" (like G). When the third is raised up or sharped, the chord sounds happier. When the third is not raised up, the chord sounds sadder.
I realize that the way I am saying this sounds kindof dumb and simplistic, but that's all that seperates a steriotypically happy and a steriotypically sad sounding chord. The ironic thing is that major and minor chords are mixed and matched throughout songs that are both happy and sad. And on that note, I think I am over sounding like a simpleton, at least for today.
