The V7 chord also contains that most unstable of all intervals, the pitchfork-toting tritone. It's the interval formed by the fourth and seventh notes of the scale.
Resolution in western tonal music theory is the move of a note or chord from dissonance (an unstable sound) to a consonance (a more final or stable sounding one).
The Dominant Chord (V)
Although the tonic is the most stable chord in tonal music, the dominant is arguably the most important chord, because it is the dominant that actually enables us to locate the tonic.
Seventh chords are thicker in texture: Seventh chords are bad because of their four-note texture, which is thicker than the three-note texture of triads.
The open string C chord is among the first ones a beginner learns. It is relatively easy and involves only three fingers. However, the barred C chord is one of the hardest guitar chords for beginners. Although it involves the same notes but is rearranged (in a different order), this chord is more challenging to play.
The main reason is due to the stretch that all three fingers need to make. Most chord shapes you have tackled up to now will span two frets, whilst the C major chord spans 3.
If you're a fan of scary movies you've definitely heard this chord progression before. The theory behind it is very simple: two minor chords spaced a minor 3rd apart. Don't just play these chords in root position though; the inversion matters!
Although people do perceive major chords as more emotionally positive than minor chords, the happiest sounds of all are seventh chords – major or minor chords with a seventh added.
The six-string F chord is one of the hardest standard chord shape to play on the guitar. When many people try to play the F chord on guitar (and often succeed), it's with far too much struggle and effort than is actually necessary. Even extremely influential guitarists can have a hard time with barre chords.
The I, IV, and V chords are the three most common and arguably the most important harmonic elements in the musical universe. Built off of the first, fourth, and fifth notes of any major or minor scale, these three chords form the basis for much of the music found in several genres.
Diminished major-seventh chords are considered as unstable major seventh chords because of the diminished fifth interval between the root and the fifth tone, and also the augmented fifth interval between its third and seventh tones.
I-vi-IV-V
This sequence is often called the “'50s progression” or the “doo-wop progression.” It was a staple of popular music throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. Playing through the chords by themselves isn't the saddest thing you've ever heard, but with the proper melody, it can be utilized to great dramatic effect.
Jean-Philippe Rameau explained the diminished seventh chord as a dominant seventh chord whose supposed fundamental bass is borrowed from the sixth degree in minor, raised a semitone producing a stack of minor thirds.
Eb minor – D diminished – F diminished – Eb minor
The diminished chord is the darkest chord in music. This is because it's constructed with stacked minor third intervals.
It's probably the best-known ingredient for a spooky music track: being in a minor key. Choosing a minor key means focusing on minor chords and minor scales, both of which have a particular musical character to their sound.
Harmonic minor is the darkest of conventional minor scales. You can make scary music by playing just the scale (see Bach's Toccata below) or play it over chords.
The darkest scale is the double harmonic major scale which is just a major scale with a flat 2nd and a flat 6th.
The tonic (C) is the strongest note and draws more of our attention, so minor chords like this trigger more sensory dissonance, a kind of tension that stems from the clashing of closely spaced frequencies.
The Melodic minor works perfectly if you want to create mysterious chords on guitar. The E Melodic minor scale is played like this: E F# G A B C# D# E. The 6th and 7th degree are sharped.
Most instruments (e.g., saxophone, trumpet, trombone, human voice) can only play one note at a time and, therefore, can't play chords; these are referred to as single-note instruments.
Simply put, because the 8th, 10th, 12th, and 14th, are chord tones that are already present in the lower portion of the chord, not tensions that can be added like the 9th, 11th, and 13th.
One of the reasons the F chord is difficult to play is because it's positioned on the 1st fret of your guitar. A good rule of thumb to remember is as follows: the lower the fret, the higher the string tension. It takes tremendous finger strength to barre across the first fret.