Yamaha PSR-270, Portatone manual What is a CHORD?

AUTO ACCOMPANIMENT — 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.

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.

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	Minor chord	Augmented chord	Diminished chord
(ex. C)	(ex. Cm)	(ex. Caug)	(ex. Cdim)

Minor	Major	Major	Minor	Major	Major	Minor	Minor
3rd	3rd	3rd	3rd	3rd	3rd	3rd	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 changing the basic nature of the chord itself.

Inversion examples for the key of C

G

E

C

C G E

E

C G

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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