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C Major Chord: How Resonance in Sound Works in the Major Triad
The C Major Chord's three notes, C, E, and G, each have a series of resonant overtones that reinforce each other, as thown in Table 35 above.
- In the “C” column, you can see that all three notes of the C major triad (C, E, and G) appear as overtones of the single C tone.
- In the “E” and “G” columns, both the E tone and the G tone of the C major chord add the overtone corresponding to scale degree 7 (the note B). This is the scale degree associated with the semitone interval that “points” strongly at C (scale degree 1): the leading tone.
- Other overtones include D, which also points strongly at C, and G♯, which seeks to resolve to G (scale degree 5).
So, when you play the notes C, E, and G simultaneously on your guitar or piano (forming a chord, a major triad), all of the overtones common to the three tones reinforce each other. This is the acoustical phenomenon called resonance, discussed in the Section 3.3 on musical instruments and how they work.
The major triad is a completely balanced, satisfied-sounding chord that doesn’t want to go anywhere.