How to add mood to your chords

RyanTrapstar

New member
I've been trying to make chord progressions but they're just lacking that real ambient mood to them, what can i do to make my chords have more feeling and mood in them?
 
Could be a few things:

Chord changes by the bar, like every bar or twice a bar, have more mood in them than changes on a smaller scale and you feel it more.

But maybe there aren't enough notes playing so it's lacking feeling?
It's best to have only 1 bass note playing at a time w/ 1 low-mid note too.
But then the upper-mids and high notes of the chord can have several different notes playing at a time.

I think it has to do w/ different sounds being more easily distinguished by the human ear at higher frequencies than in the muddy'd lows.

Then the frequency spectrum of the instrument and overall balancing play a huge part too, so the mixing side I guess.

Hope that helped at all
 
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I've been trying to make chord progressions but they're just lacking that real ambient mood to them, what can i do to make my chords have more feeling and mood in them?
Extensions and alterations are a start. Adding tension works wonders for changing the effect of a chord. For example, play a C7 chord, then play a C7#11 or make it a C7b5 and notice the effect a raised fourth or flatted fifth has on the character of the chord.
 
I second what Pumpthrust said. And I'll also add ---

Another thing that sometimes works to add some emotional depth to your chord progressions is to have a sustained note or chord that plays under your progression. This works especially well if the sustained chord is filtered and mixed low, acting as a sort of unchanging pad. This is just an example, but if you had a chord progression that was in C, you could have a bandpassed (to allow room for your actual chord change) chord coming from a separate synth such as an Fmaj7 constantly sustained at a very low level. Also try a sustained string note over your progression... sometimes helps!
 
Triads alone tend to only give you a basic separation of happy or sad

Move to adding 7ths to those chords and suddenly things get interesting and project a mood of sorts

Add chords from outside the key (parallel major/minors or modes are good here) and perhaps changing function from simple diatonic progression to secondary dominant pushes can also evoke a mood

Using pedal tones also works (what was suggested above) both normal and inverted (i.e. the pedal tone is held over the top of the chords

I would also suggest that the harmonic rhythm (rate of chord change), as well as the actual rhythm used to play the chords, can impact on mood

Compare a progression played with a vibrant rhythmic pattern to one where the chords are played once a bar: both evoke a mood, either of which may be what is needed at any point in the tune

An example to consider

C-G[sub]/B[/sub]-E[sup]b[/sup][sub]/B[sup]b[/sup][/sub]-F[sub]/A[/sub]-A[sup]bmaj7[/sup]-C[sub]/G[/sub]-G[sup]7sus4[/sup]-G[sup]7[/sup] ~ I-V[sub]/7[/sub]-[sup]b[/sup]III[sub]/[sup]b[/sup]7[/sub]-IV[sub]/6[/sub]-[sup]b[/sup]VI[sup]7[/sup]-I[sub]/5[/sub]-V[sup]7sus4[/sup]-V[sup]7[/sup]

C ~ C-E-G
G[sub]/B[/sub] ~ G-B-D with a B in the bass
E[sup]b[/sup][sub]/B[sup]b[/sup][/sub] ~ E[sup]b[/sup]-G-B[sup]b[/sup] with a B[sup]b[/sup] in the bass
F[sub]/A[/sub] ~ F-A-C with an A in the bass
A[sup]bmaj7[/sup] ~ A[sup]b[/sup]-C-E[sup]b[/sup]-G
C[sub]/G[/sub] ~ C-E-G with a G in the bass
G[sup]7sus4[/sup] ~ G-C-D-F
G[sup]7[/sup] ~ G-B-D-F
 
Try separating the chords into individual patches (so if you are playing triads make three patches) with their own CC controls (for at least volume), then play in the automation.

This approach leads to more interesting sounding music and better mixes for lots of reasons. You can tweak different elements of the chords in a far more organic way than having to rely on EQ. You give each part different effect chains. You can pan them individually. You can use the elements individually throughout the track.
 
verb helps, as does vibrato. really any kind of moving effect, so vibrato (pitch modulation) or tremolo (volume modulation) or auto filter (eq modulation) could help.
 
I use a technique in with playing where I simply borrow chords from other keys to create a soulful or often sad type of mood. Simply techniques like shifting a chord half a step can create mood or feelings.
 
Seventh chords are also a great way to add mood to your chords, especially dominant 7ths as they contain the leading tone to the tonic.

Inversions too. Inversions are a great way to give your song movement.
 
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