A chord is three or more notes sounding together. Change the notes you stack and you change the emotional color of the sound — from joyful major triads to dark minor sevenths to unresolved sus chords. Here's what each quality means and how to use the controls.
Major (maj) stacks a major third (4 semitones) and a minor third (3 semitones) — 0, 4, 7. Bright, resolved, happy. Minor (min) flips the order — minor third on the bottom, major on top — 0, 3, 7. Sadder, pensive. Diminished (dim) stacks two minor thirds — 0, 3, 6. Tense, unresolved, wants to move somewhere. Augmented (aug) stacks two major thirds — 0, 4, 8. Dreamlike, suspended, every note feels equal.
Sus2 replaces the third with a second (0, 2, 7) — open, airy, modern. Sus4 replaces the third with a fourth (0, 5, 7) — classic rock chord before the resolution back to major. Sus chords are ambiguous — neither major nor minor — and typically resolve to a triad.
Stack a seventh on any triad and you get a richer, more sophisticated sound. Maj7 (0, 4, 7, 11) is jazz-smooth and dreamy — the first chord of "The Girl From Ipanema." Min7 (0, 3, 7, 10) is mellow and reflective — endless R&B, soul, neo-soul. Dom7 (0, 4, 7, 10) is the blues and funk chord — bright major with a tension that wants to resolve down a fifth. Dim7 (0, 3, 6, 9) is the most tense of all, used in classical and horror film scoring. M7b5 (half-diminished, 0, 3, 6, 10) is a jazz staple.
Maj9, Min9, Add9 stack the ninth note on top of the triad or seventh chord. Nines add a lush, cinematic, slightly ambiguous color without the intensity of the seventh alone. Used constantly in gospel, pop ballads, and modern jazz.
A C major chord is C-E-G. In first inversion, E is on the bottom: E-G-C. In second inversion, G is on the bottom: G-C-E. The chord is still "C major," but the voicing changes — first inversion sounds more plaintive, second inversion sounds more rooted in the 5th, ready to resolve. Inversions are how professional composers create smooth voice-leading between chords (the bottom note doesn't have to jump a huge distance every chord change).
Chords played on piano sound simultaneously — all notes hit at once. Chords played on guitar sound slightly staggered — the pick travels across strings over roughly 30-80 milliseconds. Strum mode recreates that effect, making chords feel looser, more human, more guitar-like. Turn strum off for crisp piano-style chords, on for acoustic-guitar feel.