Chords and Progressions for Emotion

[Kyero2015]

Hey everyone!

I wanted to start a discussion about everyone's favorite chords and chord progressions as well as the emotions that they cause you to experience so we can share and learn from one another's emotional responses. As composers and songwriters, it's essential that we know how to evoke specific feelings in our music depending on the project and who our target audience is. No synthesizer, instrument, or vocal track is going to hit the audience harder than the right chord at the right moment.

So I'll start off with a couple of my favorite chord progressions and what they cause me to experience emotionally! And please keep in mind these are in no particular order.

1) Cm7 to F4/3 (7, 2nd inversion) (Bimodal chord)
- Blocked chord = satisfied/uplifting
- Arpeggiated = mystical/uplifting

2) F#m (root position) /Bm (first inversion)
- This chord combination just has a strangely relaxing, almost heavenly sound to me

3) The Stravinsky Chord, Eb7/EMaj
- This bimodal chord has a versatile emotional impact depending on how you present it. As a blocked chord, it's quite jarring and definitely evocative of terror and impending danger. When it's arpeggiated, there's almost a strangely ethereal sensation to it save for the Bb in the top voice which gives it that sense of uneasiness and uncertainty. And if it's struck with staccato like it was in Rite of Spring, especially in the strings, it's just a powerhouse. Especially when combined with their respective V chords (Bb7/Bmaj).

One more chord progression!

4) Dm (first inversion)/FMaj7 (bimodal chord) to C#m (first inversion)/Bm
- This chord progression (both bimodal chords) has a very suspenseful and creepy vibe to it, especially when played in piano or pianissimo.

You may feel differently when you listen to these same chord progressions, so please feel free to compare, contrast, and/or provide your own chords and/or chord progressions and describe the emotions they cause you to experience! I'm very interested to learn about different chord progressions and their emotional impact. Also please be sure to include any inversions or additional notes about how you played them so they can be reproduced for best effect by others!

Cheers!

[EagleGuard]

This guy gives some pretty good examples of emotions through chord intervals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSKAt3pmYBs (action @ 4:44, but the whole thing is pretty hilarious and definitely worth the watch).

[ProudAardvark]

I - iv - vii - III - vi - ii - V - I
(Diatonic circle of fifths, add the seventh too)
Always sounds like an awesome journey filled with emotional experience.

i - i7 - idom7 - vi where the root descends by halfsteps i.e. c-b-bb-a with a cmajor above
(Sunds like Paul McCartney)
Also always sounds resolute in the face of sadness.

[Kelpalots]

This is a dead sexy thread. I make a lot of music that makes you get this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_sensory_meridian_response

I love hitting those right chords that ring in your ears or smashing frequencies to get a sensation going. Part of what I think of putting into my music.

[8-bitheroes]

I really dig this one recently in the key of Eb: fm9, Bb7, gm7, cm7, BM7, Bb7, EbM7, Eb7
Nice and chill, has a jazzy feel to it and too feels a bit like a journey of sorts. Theres a borrowed chord from the relative minor Which adds some chormatic movement as well as a V/IV secondary dominant to boot.

[BossWilderOfficial]

Good post, i gotta study up on this shit i know literally nothing about music theory, i just put together chords and melodies at a whims XD

[YaboiMatoi]

Play a 9th chord or an add9 and you'll be floating in the atmospheric void of space in no time.
Those are the way to go to sound mysterious.

[Kelpalots]

At 8/23/17 06:29 PM, GalaxyUnknown wrote: Good post, i gotta study up on this shit i know literally nothing about music theory, i just put together chords and melodies at a whims XD

I'm an idiot with music theory. I can also do a lot of visual work that makes up for my poor math skills. But I learned about trig when I was 4, and it kind of stuck in a way that made me not blow up my sound system quickly with trig formulas in VSTi's. But I can't read or write music and all of this sounds slightly foreign to me, though it translates fine in my head and looking up certain notes that are expressed would help. I have done it before for studying how to pile up on frequencies without distortion issues.