why do certain chords in music sound “better” than others?

Question

So I don’t know a ton about music theory, but I’m curious about how this works. Why do our brains like to hear chords that are in tune? And how do we explain why something is tuned properly?

In: 32

Answer 1

There are sonorous and dissonant intervals. Our culture informs us just how much dissonance sounds “good”. For example, medieval church singing only used “perfect” intervals of 1:1, 1:2, 2:3, and 3:4 — what are called unison, octave, 5th, and 4th.

Bulgarian folk music uses intervals like flatted 2nd and major 7th that are rarely heard in western choral music.

We are told what sounds good in part by our ears and in part by our expectations.