 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Major chord" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(July 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Component intervals fromroot | |
|---|---|
| perfect fifth | |
| major third | |
| root | |
| Tuning | |
| 4:5:6 | |
| Forte no. / | |
| 3-11 / |
Inmusic theory, amajor chord is achord that has aroot, amajor third, and aperfect fifth. When a chord comprises only these three notes, it is called amajortriad. For example, the major triad built on C, called a C major triad, has pitches C–E–G:
Inharmonic analysis and onlead sheets, a C major chord can be notated as C, CM, CΔ, or Cmaj. A major triad is represented by theinteger notation {0, 4, 7}.
A major triad can also be described by itsintervals: the interval between the bottom and middle notes is a major third, and the interval between the middle and top notes is aminor third. By contrast, aminor triad has a minor third interval on the bottom and major third interval on top. They both contain fifths, because a major third (four semitones) plus a minor third (three semitones) equals a perfect fifth (seven semitones). Chords that are constructed of consecutive (or "stacked") thirds are calledtertian.
In Westernclassical music from 1600 to 1820 and in Westernpop,folk androck music, a major chord is usually played as a triad. Along with theminor triad, the major triad is one of the basic building blocks oftonal music in the Westerncommon practice period and Western pop, folk and rock music. It is consideredconsonant, stable, or not requiringresolution. In Western music, a minor chord "sounds darker than a major chord", giving off a sense of sadness or somber feeling.[1]
Some major chords with additional notes, such as themajor seventh chord, are also called major chords. Major seventh chords are used injazz and occasionally inrock music. In jazz, major chords may also have other chord tones added, such as theninth and thethirteenthscale degrees.
A given major chord may bevoiced in many ways. For example, the notes of a C major triad, C–E–G, may be arranged in many different vertical orders and the chord will still be a C major triad. However, if the lowest note (i.e. thebass note) isnot theroot of the chord, then the chord is said to be aninversion: it is inroot position if the lowest note is the root of the chord, it is infirst inversion if the lowest note is itsthird, and it is insecond inversion if the lowest note is itsfifth. These inversions of a C major triad are shown below.
The additional notes above the bass note can be in any order and the chord still retains its inversion identity. For example, a C major chord is considered to be in first inversion if its lowest note is E, regardless of how the notes above it are arranged or evendoubled.
In this table, the chord names are in the leftmost column. The chords are given inroot position. For a given chord name, the following three columns indicate the individual notes that make up this chord. Thus in the first row, the chord is C major, which is made up of the individual pitches C, E and G.
| Chord | Root | Major third | Perfect fifth |
|---|---|---|---|
| C | C | E | G |
| C♯ | C♯ | E♯ (F) | G♯ |
| D♭ | D♭ | F | A♭ |
| D | D | F♯ | A |
| D♯ | D♯ | F (G) | A♯ |
| E♭ | E♭ | G | B♭ |
| E | E | G♯ | B |
| F | F | A | C |
| F♯ | F♯ | A♯ | C♯ |
| G♭ | G♭ | B♭ | D♭ |
| G | G | B | D |
| G♯ | G♯ | B♯ (C) | D♯ |
| A♭ | A♭ | C | E♭ |
| A | A | C♯ | E |
| A♯ | A♯ | C (D) | E♯ (F) |
| B♭ | B♭ | D | F |
| B | B | D♯ | F♯ |
.png)
Most Westernkeyboard instruments are tuned toequal temperament. In equal temperament, each semitone is the same distance apart and there are foursemitones between the root and third, three between the third and fifth, and seven between the root and fifth.
Another tuning system that is used isjust intonation. In just intonation, a major chord is tuned to the frequency ratio 4:5:6.
This may be found on I, IV, V,♭VI,♭III, and VI.[2] In equal temperament, the fifth is only twocents narrower than the just perfect fifth, but the major third is noticeably different at about 14 cents wider.
Media related toMajor chords at Wikimedia Commons
