Stephanie G. Mathis We know that music can evoke some pretty intense emotions. We’re not exactly sure why humans have to create it, but we know that we’ve always created it and loved it.
Neuroscientists at UC Berkeley have mapped emotional reactions to thousands of musical clips in dozens of genres. They then compiled these 13 feelings into an interactive mood space.
The map shows the emotional experience as a two-by-two-dimensional framework. The first one is called Valence, where the type of emotion (anger or joy) fits into a spectrum from positive to negative.
Second, the emotion can either be high-arousal (highly pumped up) (highly aroused) or low-arousal (calm).
Knowing how to evoke a certain emotion in an audience like this intentionally is part of our core job as songwriters. The harmony of the song is one way we can access this.
An earlier study by German scientists revealed that individual chord types played alone evoked a wide range of emotions. The distinct sound of each chord was clearly linked to a specific mood.
These chords are arranged in patterns or sequences called chord progressions. They help you create the flow and ebb of emotion within your song.
Friedemann Findeisen, a German music educator, simplifies the number of chord types. He suggests that the first chord in a progression determines an overall mood while the subsequent chords color the basic emotion of a song. He calls these Sub-Emotions.
To get a romantic feel (positive), start with a major (happy) and then add some dreamy chords, such as a minor or major 7.
If you want to create a more depressed, downbeat feel, start with a minor key and then use a completely minor progression (e.g., i-iv—i-v).
Opus Science Collective, a UK-based blog and synth wave sound purveyor, has created an intriguing chart derived from jazz pianist Cory Henry’s block chord improvisations. OSC realized what appeared to be mind-numbing chord clusters were actually combinations of simpler chords.
If you ever find yourself at a piano loss, he created a cheat sheet that has 31 mood flavors associated with it! Here’s an example:
Murray Christie (aka Murray Christie), a US guitarist who was formerly a Reddit star of We Are The Music Makers and u/voxmann, has gone further. Murray claimed to be:
“I am looking to understand how I can be more deliberate about how I evoke emotions in songwriting.”
The color coding made it easier for him to plot. He found the Kaitlin Robb Wheel of Emotion to be a great tool.
Here is Christie’s original Reddit post, which has generated a lot of interest. I had contacted him because I wanted to pursue this idea, but he was first!
There are simple tools (and some less complex ones) for triggering chord combinations and colors and the emotions they evoke.
