Chord
Three or more notes sounding together, most often stacked in thirds
Related
A chord is three or more notes sounding together, or heard as a single unit. The most common kind is the tertian triad: a root, a third and a fifth, which becomes major, minor, diminished or augmented depending on whether the third above the root is major or minor. Stack one more third on top and you have a seventh chord.
Two notes sounding together make an interval, not normally a chord — the guitarist's "power chord" (root plus fifth) is a habit of speech; strictly it is an interval, see interval.
Chords can be inverted: changing which note is lowest does not change what the chord is, only its weight and colour. The same notes over a different bass keep their function but change their tone.
Sources
- 三度叠置、三和弦四型与转位的定义为通行乐理（参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Chord"）；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.