An Editable Moovly Video: What are Chords? – Blog | Moovly

February 19, 2015 by Kaat

An Editable Moovly Video: What are Chords?

In this new editable video we explain what a musical chord is, how such a chord is represented and what the most common types of chords are. Enjoy!

What is a chord?

Chords are present in almost all kinds of music, but what is a chord?

The simplest definition of a chord is that it’s “a harmonic combination of three or more musical notes played simultaneously”. Actually, they can be played simultaneously but they don’t really need to be played together.
Most chords are triads, in other words, sets of 3 distinct notes. Further notes may be added, for example to give a seventh chord. In popular music a chord name is represented by a letter: for example a C. Chords also have a so-called quality, which can be major, minor, augmented or diminished. This quality can add a wide range of color to the chord.

Most music has a repeating chord structure; this is called a chord progression. Add a compelling combination of melody, lyrics and rhythm to such a chord structure and you get what is called a song.

Use this video as a template

Feel free to use, embed or even adapt this video to your own needs. For example: you can add a new voice-over that suits your audience better, translate the video or modify its content.

If you’d like to use this video as a template for your own videos, we can share the source code of the video with you. Just follow these steps to request an editable copy of the video.