Hello and welcome back!   

In this series, we will explore various aspects that make Japanese music unique. Each post will cover a specific aspect. It is designed to be easily digestible and each of them come with a few examples that hopefully will illustrate our points.    

We have discussed in the previous post, how Japanese music tend to have a very different structure to the western counterparts. Today, we will dig into a finer level of details and explore something that's called chord. 

What is a chord?

A chord is used to describe by two (or three, depending on who you ask) or more notes sounding together. For example, C Major chord consists of three notes – C, E and G. Chords create harmony, which enhances the emotion of the piece, let it be happy or sorrow. 

To understand the effect, let’s first listen to ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’ that we all know.   

Back in 18th Century when Mozart composed his Twelve Variations on the theme, harmonisation wasn’t really a big focus. Music back then sounded a lot simpler and dissonance are mainly delivered through musical ornaments such as trill notes (quickly hitting two adjacent notes alternatively). As a result, inharmonious notes were seldom played together. 

Over the time, people started experimenting different ways to express their music through different types of chords. This includes extended chords which is liberally used in Jazz music, and audible through the second clip above.

Jazzy chords

Before we dive into the details, let’s listen to Maaya Sakamoto’s Bike. 

Right off the bat, we hear piano playing a short sequence of notes like a harp. 

This is immediately followed by synthesiser and viola to create a somewhat airy, space-like feel, accelerated by bass guitar’s repetitive notes. It is discordant, and it perhaps makes you feel a bit anxious, which does not really resolve until long after the vocal joins in. The secret lies in the chords that were used and you may rightfully think that this sounds somewhat like jazz. The beginning of this song is a bargain sell of these special chord types and the first four chords are as follows (for those who know better): 

F M7(13)/C     Gflat 6/C     F M7(13)/C     Eflat m(11)/C 

We can also find plenty of examples in rock music that gives a very similar, unsettling vibe that is quite rare in the West. 

But it’s worth noting that most applications of these chords are still pretty soothing and sound quite natural. Below is an example that features a rather unorthodox intro and the infamous IV-V-III-VI chord progression, which I’ll write a separate article to describe! 

So why do we not see these often in Western pop music? There actually used to be a lot, especially before the end of the 80s (See: Bohemian Rhapsody) but then more simplistic, catchy music like what we have seen in the previous post caught on the trend and left Japan behind with the heritages. 

Is there more to this?

The answer is of course, yes! It turns out that there are some other chord-related techniques such as borrowed chords and passing chords that are quite often used in Japanese music. How do they sound like? Let’s leave it to the mighty Marty Friedman to answer this question ;) 

Does it ring bell? It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t – Stay tuned and we will go through it next time!  

Thanks for reading and I wish you all a happy new year!