“Now I've heard there was a secret chord That David played, and it pleased the Lord But you don't really care for music, do you? It goes like this the fourth, the fifth The minor fall, the major lift The baffled king composing Hallelujah” CareFallSecretLordHeardKingsMajorsLiftsFourthMinorsFifthChordsComposingHallelujahBaffled Author:Leonard Cohen
“The way that words mutate reminds me of fashions in music. The word--the note--is a constant. But the setting and chord in which it occurs alters with the mood of a nation from major to minor, from the assertive to the mournful and foreboding.” WayNationsFashionMajorsConstantNotesMoodSettingSettingsMinorsChordsAssertiveForeboding Book:Games with Shadows Source: Games with Shadows
“If I don't already know a song's chord progression, I'll stop writing and try to figure it out. I can occasionally listen to unstructured, amelodic ambient music, but I prefer no music. I don't need silence - I can write just about anywhere - but music is a major distraction.” IfsKnowsNeedsWritingTryingI CanSongSilenceFiguresMajorsMusic IsDistractionChordsProgressionAmbientAmbient Music Author:F. Paul Wilson
“The strangest part of Indian music is its lack of chords: There's no such thing as major or minor, and it's unusual to hear more than two different pitches at the same time.” TwoDifferentMajorsMusic IsIndianUnusualMinorsChordsIndian Music Author:Jonny Greenwood
“If you hear a C-major chord with an equal temperament, you've heard it a million times before and your brain accepts it. But if you hear a chord that you've never heard before, you're like, "huh."” IfsBrainAcceptingMillionsHeardEqualMajorsTemperamentChords Author:Aphex Twin
“I'm less interested in uniqueness than in goodness. I see so many concerts where the program notes are more interesting than the music. I remember talking to one composer who went through the most complicated mathematical algorithm to generate some material from scratch. It took weeks and weeks, and he came up with a C major chord. For me, honesty is more interesting than originality.” RememberInterestingTalkingWeekHonestyMaterialsGoodnessMajorsProgramNotesComplicatedMathematicalConcertsComposerOriginalityUniquenessScratchesChordsAlgorithms Author:Anna Meredith
“The soul of our music, The Monkees' music, lies somewhere inbetween the 1 1/2 , the 2 1/2, the 3 3/4 and th giant C-major chord on the piano!” SoulLyingMajorsPianoGiantsChords Author:Frank Zappa
“People don't tend to notice, but in the past 10 years especially there's been a lot of growth in how I write songs and what goes into them. You can listen to Mountain Goats from 1991 to 2007 and never hear a seventh chord. In 2007 or 2008, I started working on the piano to grow as a songwriter. I started throwing major sevens in and sixes and more interesting stuff.” PeopleWritingYearsPastSongGrowsStuffGrowthInterestingMountainMajorsPianoThrowingSongwritersChordsGoatsInteresting Stuff Author:John Darnielle
“I don't understand why Europeans and South Americans can take more sophistication. Why is it that Americans need to hear their happiness major and their tragedy minor, and as jazzy as they can handle is a seventh chord? Are they not experiencing complex emotions?” NeedsEmotionMajorsTragedySouthComplexesHandleMinorsChordsSophistication Author:Joni Mitchell