D minor plays on our rawest emotion — but in contemporary music, even the most somber of artists tend to avoid it. Why might this be?

The G replaces the 3rd (F#), meaning sus chords are neither major nor minor; it’s all about which chord you resolve to afterwards (that’s where the ‘suspended’ part comes from).

When working in a major key, chords or triads are based upon different degrees of the scale, reflecting a major or minor tonality at the individual chord level.

Why are Minor Chords Perceived as “Sad”? Part 3 article by Kurt Ellenberger, published on July 10, 2025 at All About Jazz. Find more Jazz in Long Form articles ...

Parallel modulations shift between major and minor keys that share the same root note - C major and C minor, for example. This is often done via the dominant V chord common to both keys, which in this ...

Save guides, add subjects and pick up where you left off with your BBC account. All the chords built on other notes in the scale of C are minor, except chord VII - the notes B – D – F, which ...

Much of our music, from classical to contemporary, is written in either a major or minor key (with exceptions, such as jazz, which uses neither). For most, a major key conjures up feelings of ...

This chord is a regular minor chord but with the raised 5th adding a sense of dissonance and discomfort. It’s a great chord to throw into a progression to add some instant tension, or, used in the ...

Why do we automatically assume that songs in a major key are happy and minor key, sad? It seems to be mostly the result of cultural conditioning.

Save guides, add subjects and pick up where you left off with your BBC account. All the chords built on other notes in the scale of C are minor, except chord VII - the notes B – D – F, which ...