# What makes a sad song sad?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-sad-song-sad/183563>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [June 22, 2003, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-sad-song-sad/183563 "2003-06-22T09:23:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![deuteronomy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@deuteronomy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deuteronomy)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2003, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-sad-song-sad/183563/1 "2003-06-22T09:23:05Z")

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What’s the deal with Major and Minor chords?  
Just what is it, I’m wondering, about D-minor that can make anyone “instantly weep”?  
I posed this to the lounge-room sages. Their slurred guesses were:  
"Pavlovian conditioning "  
"Low-Level Synesthesia "  
"something to do with recognizing similarities in tones used to express emotion in…wait…what was the question again? "

The straight dope, anyone?

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**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2003, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-sad-song-sad/183563/2 "2003-06-22T09:47:01Z")

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deuteronomy

I like this question!

I do wonder if a simple D-minor chord by itself could cause anyone to weep, though. It might cause a little shudder or chill if played just right by the right intrument in the right context, but just walking over to the piano and plunking down a D-minor chord would bring a tear (IMHO) only if the thing were badly out of tune.

To test this on yourself, try playing C-E-G (major) then C-Eb-G (minor) back and forth for a few tries and see if you well up and bawl. I would wager not. Of course, in your case, you’d have to swap back and forth from D-F#-A and D-F-A to get the full effect.

Can’t wait for a more definitive reply that _does_ show why minor keys, chords, scales, etc., are associated with sadness or the like.

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**Author:** ![John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ccd318/32.png) [@John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kentzel-Griffin)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2003, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-sad-song-sad/183563/3 "2003-06-22T09:57:17Z")

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Since music is an art, I’m going to toss this over to our forum for discussing the arts.

Off to Cafe Society.

**DrMatrix** - GQ Moderator