Favourite chord?

FrankCox

Sometimes it seems that a particular chord just jumps out and grabs ya!

A combination of the piano and the room that it's in seems to just have that extra undefinable "something".

It took me several years to notice this, which shows you how subtle the effect can be, but for my piano and my room it's Bb major. There's a wonderful resonance in it that somehow pushes it past the other standard chords.

ShiroKuro

Hmmm, I don’t know that I’ve had a favorite chord (and my piano needs to be tuned, so now isn’t the time to try to find it. But I do love playing pieces with more complex chords or interesting voicings.

keff

I have read that pieces, particularly choral pieces , are joyous if written in D. After playing the major chords on my piano I find it difficult to choose any as a favourite or any comprising extra colour. All I hear is a change of pitch and not a change of character. Could this be a feature of equal temperament tuning?

JohnCW

keff I have read that pieces, particularly choral pieces , are joyous if written in D. After playing the major chords on my piano I find it difficult to choose any as a favourite or any comprising extra colour. All I hear is a change of pitch and not a change of character. Could this be a feature of equal temperament tuning?

Short answer, yes it is due to equal temperament tuning. There is no 'color' difference between any keys, all being the identically same amount out of perfect i.e 'equal'. If you do want to have a change of character between different keys then ask you tuner to do a mild non equal temperament (just be aware such a request may cause his head to explode).

Josephine

Chord or key signature?

I didn't know it, so I wrote down a lot of pieces that I played, and the key signature I chose most often are A major and A flat major.

I also noticed that 70% of the pieces is in major and 30% is written in a minor key.

HeartKeys

I have two that come to mind:

1) minor7, 9, 11. So for example, Bbm7,9,11.
The notes would be Bb C# F Ab C E. This chord is used ubiquitously in jazz, neo soul, and R&B music for the keyboard.

2) the second chord of the main last segment of Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No2. I don’t know what it’s called but the notes would be something like (if it were in key of Bb): Bb B Eb F Ab.

Let me know if I’m making sense, I can also record me playing it, which probably sounds better than my description🙂

ranjit

I like the minor 9 chord a lot.

kanadajin

Favourite chord to me is a little like the flavour of the month, it changes every once in awhile and sometimes related specifically to the actual voicing that I happen to use or accidentally fall upon. These days I am quite fond of the #11th sound as I try to integrate it in my time at the keyboard.

Pallas

Scriabin's mystic chord is pretty great.

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HeartKeys

Pallas I like this one. It’s also quite common in jazz. I find lots of chords from Rach, Chopin, Scriabin to be applicable for jazz!

Pallas

HeartKeys I noticed how many interesting chords that sound "jazzy" are in late Scriabin! I'm only at the beginning of my music theory education, so I don't know a lot yet, but I'm listening, listening, listening!

HeartKeys

Update- regarding my favorite chord (minor7,9,11) I like it even more in the diminished third progression. Meaning, playing that chord, then playing same chord three half steps down and so on.

Here’s an impromptu recording I just did to illustrate.

It’s pretty common in neo-soul sort of music and I love it.

Rubens

Maj 7th!!!

Simple tastes, I guess. To me that's the love chord. My wife says I'm corny.

keff

JohnCW cause his head to explode

Many thanks for the reply. Would however point out my tuner is a lady and brilliant at her job.

malkin

I like the secret chord that David played. You know, the one that pleased the Lord.

Stub

Eb-G-Bb. Eb major has hisortically been called the heroic key (or chord). The Eroica Symphony is in Eflat major. I don't find it particularly heroic; I just like the sound of it.

thepianoplayer416

Probably D minor. I like pieces in F major so Dm is the relative. I have a piano arrangement Bach Toccata & Fugue and it's in Dm. Otherwise I like minor keys in general including Bm, Cm, Em, Gm & Am. These chords sound sad but at the same give a sense of optimism.

SouthPark

I love all chords! I love even individual notes ... every single one of them, and all in-between too ... the audio frequencies and the harmonics.

KenBakerMN

Fmaj(#11) voiced F-C-A-E-B (interestingly, in chords more complex than triads the particular voicing makes a big difference; sometimes transpositions to different keys make a difference too because the piano typically is not perfectly evenly tempered so different keys have slightly different sounds)

Emin9 voiced E-B-G-D-F#

And this one I call the Ken chord:
Db in the bass (either an actual string bass or get your toe up there)
Left hand F-Ab-Bb-Eb (rootless Dbmaj,6,9
Right hand C-G-C (Red Garland style)
You end up getting every note of the Db Lydian scale.

pseudonym58

The interest that a particular chord might hold for me depends on the context, the other chords or melodies around it.
One of the first thoughts I had was of the "Forlane" by Ravel. Here's a brief harmonic analysis:

and you can easily find complete performances on YouTube.