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The Prettiest Chord or Chord Type...Most heroic?


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Posted

I'm in search of some pretty sounding chords. What, in your opinion, is the prettiest?


Also, what chord(s) sound heroic to you?

 

Major - happy, cheerful, confident, bright, satisfied, upbeat

 

Minor - sad, blue, dark, sullen apprehensive, melancholy, depressing, mysterious

 

Seventh - funky, bluesy, soulful, somewhat edgy

 

Major Seventh - romantic, softly jazzy, serene, soothing, exhilarating

 

Minor Seventh - mellow, moody, jazzy

 

Ninth - open, optimistic

 

Diminished - tense, shocking, spooky, suspenseful

 

Suspended Fourth - beautifully tense

 

Seventh, Minor Ninth- creepy, sinister, threatening, dark

 

Added Ninth - steely, austere

 

 

:) I especially like F7 played XX3210

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Posted

Maj7 chords in general are very "pretty."

 

Suspended chords are nice too, although maybe not quite as "pretty" as maj7 chords.

 

"Heroic" is a more complex feeling. I can't really think of a standalone chord that embodies it. A progression, perhaps... one that comes to mind is borrowing the VI and VII chords of the parallel minor key while in a major key. Here's the example I'm thinking of, from the Electric Light Orchestra song "Can't get it out of my head":

C | Cmaj7 | C7 | C7 | F7 | F7

^that is repeated 3 times, and then on the fourth time:

C | Cmaj7 | C7 | C7 | F7 | G | Ab | Bb | C

The last three chords are what I'm talking about. Climbing up those 2 chords from the parallel minor scale and then resolving back to C gives it a real "grand finale" type of feeling, which I think could also be interpretted as sort of "heroic." Listen to the song and also fiddle around with that on your guitar. It's also not an incredibly uncommon progression, so don't worry about "ripping off E.L.O." ;)

This is also used in the chorus/outro of Pearl Jam's song "Jeremy" (in the key of A), for another take on the same idea.

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Posted

i found a nice chord last night when one of my students made a mistake.

Spelled out from bass to treble it is this :

(skip low e )

open A string

G on D string fifth fret

C on G string fifth fret

Fsharp on B string seventh fret

B on E string seventh fret

 

The way i figure it the chord is a A minor/majorsixth/majornine though i guess you could look at it like a C chord with a sharp fourth and major seven.

Who cares what you call it? Play this as an ending chord on an A minor tune.

Sweet!

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Posted

 

I'm in search of some pretty sounding chords. What, in your opinion, is the prettiest?


Also, what chord(s) sound heroic to you?

 

 

I don

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Posted

Major - happy, cheerful, confident, bright, satisfied, upbeat


Minor - sad, blue, dark, sullen apprehensive, melancholy, depressing, mysterious


Seventh - funky, bluesy, soulful, somewhat edgy


Major Seventh - romantic, softly jazzy, serene, soothing, exhilarating


Minor Seventh - mellow, moody, jazzy


Ninth - open, optimistic


Diminished - tense, shocking, spooky, suspenseful


Suspended Fourth - beautifully tense


Seventh, Minor Ninth- creepy, sinister, threatening, dark


Added Ninth - steely, austere



:)
I especially like F7 played XX3210

 

 

 

IMO Assigning emotions to chords is bullcrap. Yes, generally, major sounds happy , minor sounds sad, and etc. but a lot of the time the sound depends on the chord progression. All those rules can be broken if done right. So take all that emotion bullcrap with a grain of salt.

 

To comment on your question about a heroic sounding chord I think, for example, you would need to have a build up of chords and then the last chord be the "heroic" one. It will probably be a major chord. I don't think any chord played by it's self will sound heroic, it's too strong of an emotion.

 

Also, asking people for a pretty sounding chord is unlikely to return satisfactory results. It's just like asking which guitar is the best to buy. Pretty much you're going to get 100 different answers of people telling you what chords THEY like. What's pretty to them might not be pretty to you although it might give you new ideas, which is always good. In conclusion, don't be afraid to ask questions but certain questions, like these, are sometimes hard to answer.

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Posted
IMO Assigning emotions to chords is bullcrap. Yes, generally, major sounds happy , minor sounds sad, and etc. but a lot of the time the sound depends on the chord progression. All those rules can be broken if done right. So take all that emotion bullcrap with a grain of salt.

This is all correct, but, one of the fundamental "theories" of "music theory" is that different chords have different emotive qualities. I don't think that the fact that there are exceptions constitutes these theories being "bullcrap."

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Posted

Sometimes the prettiest and most heroic sounding chord to me is a big, fat, loud, open position A5 power chord. When your amp is sounding just right, there is nothing better on earth.

 

I also like F#min, C# min, and sus2 chords.

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Posted

Here's you go, this has to be one of the coolest sounding chords...a simple Eadd6 chord played like this...

 

E--12--

B--14--

G--16--

D--18--

A--x--

E--0--

 

Stretch those fingers and behold it's beautiful coolness :)

 

Also, here's a little beautiful chord humor...play along...

 

You can play the maj7 chord?

 

E--x--

B--12--

G--13--

D--13--

A--x--

E--0--

 

You can play the m7 chord?

 

E--x--

B--12--

G--12--

D--12--

A--x--

E--0--

 

You can play the Dominant 7 chord?

 

E--x--

B--12--

G--13--

D--12--

A--x--

E--0--

 

Well now...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

you can play the 007 chord...

 

 

 

 

E--14--

B--12--

G--12--

D--13--

A--x--

E--0--

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Posted

That first chord reminds me of a lap steel. Doesn't intonate well on my guitar though. I give it a 6. :lol:

Regardless, call me slow but I don't get the joke. :D

I'll go work on my speed meanwhile.

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Posted

This is all correct, but, one of the fundamental "theories" of "music theory" is that different chords have different emotive qualities. I don't think that the fact that there are exceptions constitutes these theories being "bullcrap."

 

Gee, thanks for pointing that out you theory wizard. So let me get this straight since I'm pretty new at guitar. I should just play all minor chords if I want to make a sad sounding song and all major chords if I want to play a happy song?? :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: Do me a favor and don't preach to me about theory. I'm not the one asking for advice, in this thread at least. I just don't the poor guy/girl to have a one sided view of things. Structure is good but only certain amounts. If he/she has a list of chords with assigned emotions and only uses them according to such he/she might not realize that there's a whole other world of possibilities out there.

 

There needs to be sadness in order to be happy.

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Posted

First off, cool down.

Second, I don't believe anybody here said anything about using "all major" or "all minor" chords in a song, so I'd appreciate if you didn't put words in my mouth :thu:. Besides, that's not even relevant to this thread- he simply asked for some chords that helped convey a certain feeling. So now that we've established that any of these so-called "rules" can be broken (what a shocker! :eek: :eek: who knew?!), you're welcome to come down from your pedestal and join the discussion any time you like. :wave:

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Posted

 

I'm in search of some pretty sounding chords. What, in your opinion, is the prettiest?


Also, what chord(s) sound heroic to you?

 

 

IMO - alot will depend on how you voice the chord.

 

e.g.

 

C 6th played

 

a--5--

e--5--

c--5--

g--5--

c--3--

---x--

 

has a different quality to

 

e--12-

a--10-

g--12--

c--10-

---x--

---x--

 

You're best off using your ears, and experimenting with different voicings. You'll find that *alot* easier if you know chord theory and the names of the notes on the fretboard.

 

Also the quality of the chord is effected by the progession it sits in. Listen to the 'g' chord in a C, D, G progression and then in a Em, G, Em, G progression and you should see what I mean.

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Posted

First off, cool down.

Second, I don't believe
anybody
here said anything about using "all major" or "all minor" chords in a song, so I'd appreciate if you didn't put words in my mouth
:thu:
. Besides, that's not even relevant to this thread- he simply asked for some chords that helped convey a certain feeling. So now that we've established that any of these so-called "rules" can be broken (what a shocker!
:eek:
:eek: who knew?!), you're welcome to come down from your pedestal and join the discussion any time you like.
:wave:

 

I'm better than you.

  • Members
Posted

First off, cool down.

Second, I don't believe
anybody
here said anything about using "all major" or "all minor" chords in a song, so I'd appreciate if you didn't put words in my mouth
:thu:
. Besides, that's not even relevant to this thread- he simply asked for some chords that helped convey a certain feeling. So now that we've established that any of these so-called "rules" can be broken (what a shocker!
:eek:
:eek: who knew?!), you're welcome to come down from your pedestal and join the discussion any time you like.
:wave:

 

 

nice pwn:thu:

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Posted

I think a maj6/9 chord is probably, IMHO, the "prettiest" chord. Maj9 is second place. For most heroic, I would probably say ending your progression on a nice big sus4-to-major resolution (or a variation thereof) can impart a lot of grandeur and sound "heroic"...of course, it's really how you use the chords that's important.

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