4 ms·

The more interesting question to me, is not what makes a major or minor, that is a simple google search away, there are tons of references about that; the more

The more interesting question to me, is not what makes a major or minor, that is a simple google search away, there are tons of references about that; the more interesting question in my mind is why do certain harmonic intervals sound more pleasing to humans (perhaps animals as well) than other intervals. Is it arbitrary? Perhaps not. There has been a lot of research on that as well, for example: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20930-why-harmony-pleases-the-brain/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20930-why-harmony-ple... So, once you figure out what a major and minor are, then the next question is why does that sound better than other combinations of notes?

parenthesis 5y ago
How a chord sounds depends greatly on the timbre of the instrument or instruments. For example, a major or minor triad played on a heavily distorted electric guitar sounds pretty uncomfortable (hence power chords), but played on strings sounds pretty calm. How a chord sounds also depends greatly on what came before it. For example, in typical common practice period harmony, dominant seventh chords do not sound resolved. On the other hand, many songs in popular music have moments that resolve to a dominant seventh chord.
- mrob 5y ago
  A distorted guitar distorts the components of the power chord after mixing them. This means that you get intermodulation distortion between different notes. The sum and different tones generated by this distortion form a harmonic series when combined with the original notes. A power chord is root + fifth, which is a 1:1.5 ratio of frequencies (exactly in just intonation, and very nearly in equal temperament). Intermodulation distortion produces tones of frequency ratio 1.5 + 1 and 1.5 - 1, giving 2 and 0.5. Combine them with the existing tones and you get 0.5:1:1.5:2. This is just the harmonic series 1:2:3:4, but pitched down an octave (all frequencies divided by two). A distorted power chord contains the harmonics of a single note pitched an octave lower, which is why it sounds "heavy". There are many other harmonics in the notes, so the timbre is much more complicated that that, but the fundamentals are most prominent, so the distorted power chord sounds consonant. And if you have a guitar with a hexaphonic pickup and distort each string individually you don't get intermodulation distortion between the notes, so you can play much more complicated chords without it sounding dissonant.
mrob 5y ago
William Sethares published a mathematical model of consonance and dissonance of arbitrary sounds: http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/paperspdf/consonance.pdf http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/paperspdf/consonance.pdf Informal overview: http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/consemi.html http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/consemi.html This is almost certainly an oversimplification (e.g. the listener's familiarity with the sounds also matters), but the results match my own perception of consonance and dissonance reasonably accurately. It doesn't address the question of "why", but intuitively it seems that dissonance is associated with sounds that take more mental effort to understand. If the partials line up closely then they are perceived as part of the same sound, and if they are spaced far apart then they are obviously different, but there's an awkward intermediate spacing that's uncertain (the "roughness" on the Plomp and Levelt curve). Dissonant sounds contain a lot of this uncertainty.
- zw123456 5y ago
  If it was as simple as familiarity, then babies would not recognize dissonance https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3735980/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3735980/ Although I suppose there could be an argument that familiarity began in the womb but that seems like a stretch IMO.
narag 5y ago
...the more interesting question in my mind is why do certain harmonic intervals sound more pleasing to humans... Unfortunately the first satisfactory answer that I got needed much more knowledge. The foundation is about proximity and dynamics (thinking about scales as a progression, not simultaneous notes). But it's much better to just accept that major is "happier" than minor when you're starting, and later understand why intuitively.
leephillips 5y ago
The classical answer to this question is given in On the Sensation of Tone As a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music, a long book by Helmholtz (the famous physicist). He attempts to derive all of Western harmonic practice from physiological considerations. It’s probably controversial, but it’s a fascinating book.
deleted 5y ago
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parenthesis 5y ago

How a chord sounds depends greatly on the timbre of the instrument or instruments. For example, a major or minor triad played on a heavily distorted electric guitar sounds pretty uncomfortable (hence power chords), but played on strings sounds pretty calm. How a chord sounds also depends greatly on what came before it. For example, in typical common practice period harmony, dominant seventh chords do not sound resolved. On the other hand, many songs in popular music have moments that resolve to a dominant seventh chord.

mrob 5y ago
A distorted guitar distorts the components of the power chord after mixing them. This means that you get intermodulation distortion between different notes. The sum and different tones generated by this distortion form a harmonic series when combined with the original notes. A power chord is root + fifth, which is a 1:1.5 ratio of frequencies (exactly in just intonation, and very nearly in equal temperament). Intermodulation distortion produces tones of frequency ratio 1.5 + 1 and 1.5 - 1, giving 2 and 0.5. Combine them with the existing tones and you get 0.5:1:1.5:2. This is just the harmonic series 1:2:3:4, but pitched down an octave (all frequencies divided by two). A distorted power chord contains the harmonics of a single note pitched an octave lower, which is why it sounds "heavy". There are many other harmonics in the notes, so the timbre is much more complicated that that, but the fundamentals are most prominent, so the distorted power chord sounds consonant. And if you have a guitar with a hexaphonic pickup and distort each string individually you don't get intermodulation distortion between the notes, so you can play much more complicated chords without it sounding dissonant.

mrob 5y ago

William Sethares published a mathematical model of consonance and dissonance of arbitrary sounds: http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/paperspdf/consonance.pdf http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/paperspdf/consonance.pdf Informal overview: http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/consemi.html http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/consemi.html This is almost certainly an oversimplification (e.g. the listener's familiarity with the sounds also matters), but the results match my own perception of consonance and dissonance reasonably accurately. It doesn't address the question of "why", but intuitively it seems that dissonance is associated with sounds that take more mental effort to understand. If the partials line up closely then they are perceived as part of the same sound, and if they are spaced far apart then they are obviously different, but there's an awkward intermediate spacing that's uncertain (the "roughness" on the Plomp and Levelt curve). Dissonant sounds contain a lot of this uncertainty.

zw123456 5y ago
If it was as simple as familiarity, then babies would not recognize dissonance https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3735980/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3735980/ Although I suppose there could be an argument that familiarity began in the womb but that seems like a stretch IMO.

narag 5y ago

...the more interesting question in my mind is why do certain harmonic intervals sound more pleasing to humans... Unfortunately the first satisfactory answer that I got needed much more knowledge. The foundation is about proximity and dynamics (thinking about scales as a progression, not simultaneous notes). But it's much better to just accept that major is "happier" than minor when you're starting, and later understand why intuitively.

leephillips 5y ago

The classical answer to this question is given in On the Sensation of Tone As a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music, a long book by Helmholtz (the famous physicist). He attempts to derive all of Western harmonic practice from physiological considerations. It’s probably controversial, but it’s a fascinating book.

deleted 5y ago

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