What Is A Chord - Yamaha PSR-195 PSR-79 Manual

Selecting and Playing Styles — The Style Mode

What is a Chord?

The simple answer: Three or more notes played simultaneously is a chord. (Two notes played
together is an "interval" — an interval being the distance between two different notes. This is
also referred to as a "harmony.") Depending on the intervals between the three or more notes,
a chord can sound beautiful or muddy and dissonant.
In this triad, the lowest note is the "root." The root (also called the "tonic") is the most impor-
tant note in the chord, because it anchors the sound harmonically by determining its "key" and
forms the basis for how we hear the other notes of the chord.
The second note of this chord is four semitones higher than the first, and the third is three
semitones higher than the second. Keeping our root note fixed and changing these notes by a
semitone up or down (sharp or flat), we can create four different chords.
Major chord
(ex. C)
Minor
3rd
Keep in mind that we can also change the "voicing" of a chord — for example, change the order
of the notes (called "inversions"), or play the same notes in different octaves — without chang-
ing the basic nature of the chord itself.
Beautiful sounding harmonies can be built in this manner. The use of intervals and chords is one
of the most important elements in music. A wide variety of emotions and feelings can be cre-
ated depending on the types of chords used and the order in which they are arranged.
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The organization of notes in the example at left — a triad chord —
produces a pleasant, harmonious sound. Triads are made up of three
notes and are the most basic and common chords in most music.
Minor chord
(ex. C
Major Major
3rd 3rd
Inversion examples for the key of C
G
E
C
Augmented chord
) (ex. C
m
Minor Major
3rd 3rd
C
G
E
Diminished chord
) (ex. C
aug
Major Minor
3rd 3rd
E
C
G
)
dim
Minor
3rd