When we combine harmonious intervals to create chords, there are various conventions we follow (consciously or otherwise) to avoid unpleasant dissonances. Here, we’re going to do no such thing! We ...

Why are some musical chords so inherently pleasing while others sound so obviously dissonant? A study of a group of people with the genetic condition amusia, which causes sufferers to incorrectly ...

An altered chord is one that contains notes from outside its scale of origin – chords such as b9 or #5 are frequently seen examples of this. What the example chords are designed to demonstrate is how ...

What is it about Jimi Hendrix that so many people find appealing? According to scientists at UCLA, it’s all in the music – or rather, the dissonance in that music: the unexpected, jarring, almost ...

There's no accounting for taste—but if you want to blame anything on how you were raised, your taste in music could rank up there, a new study suggests. In music, chords can be broken down into many ...

A capacity crowd had gathered on a lovely spring evening for a concert by one of my college friends in a beautiful outdoor venue. It happened to be his birthday, so the emcee hinted that we might want ...

George Harrison’s expertise on guitar was far more subdued than other players. He isn’t considered a flashy soloist like Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Page. Instead he dealt in timeless riffs. He is ...

Music displays all the harmony and discord the auditory world has to offer. The perfect pair of notes at the end of the Kyrie in Mozart’s Requiem fills churches and concert halls with a single chord ...

I quit making New Year’s resolutions years ago. I joke that my resolution is to make no resolutions. However, as a musician, every resolution I make is made very publicly! Resolution in music is ...