[AUDITORY] Emotional Impact of Scale Degrees in Relation to Chord Root Perception

[Dennis Hamm <dennis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear colleagues,

As a professional jazz pianist exploring the emotional impact of harmony, I’ve recently delved into how individual scale degrees within chords contribute to emotional expression. One key observation is that each added scale degree imparts a distinct emotional color—but intriguingly, its affective quality can shift dramatically depending on whether the underlying chord is Major or Minor.

For example, adding an F♯ to a C Major triad might evoke feelings of enchantment or wonder. However, adding the same pitch to a C Minor triad often generates a much darker, even malevolent emotional response.

In collaboration with Tuomas Eerola and Imre Lahdelma at Durham University (whose work with Pakistani tribal participants revealed that Major chords can be perceived as odd or unsettling, and Minor chords as positive!), I’ve created a brief survey to test this theory.

If you’re interested in contributing to this research—or simply curious about how you personally respond to harmonic variation—you can participate here:
https://sentisonics.com/hes/

Please feel free to share this with students and non-musicians as well. Thank you!

Best regards,

Dennis Hamm

dennis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx