How to Maintain Musical Neutrality
We all know how to make music happy or sad; just use major or minor chords! But sometimes I need to create a musical bed that doesn't really sit on either end of that basic mood spectrum.When I need a more neutral middle ground, there is one very simple technique that I always immediately jump to: avoiding the third.My best trick for harmonic neutrality is to use sus chords, particularly sus4 and sus2. This means using the notes CFG or CDG, instead of CEG like a typical major triad. The result is a wide, open, fresh sound that is open to interpretation. It's not minor, it's not major, it's neutral.Another great feature of sus chords is that you can move around to different roots with ease. Because Csus4 isn't really tied to a major or minor tonality, you aren't restricted to only use the chords in those keys. Csus4 moves to any other sus4 chord pretty naturally, thus allowing you to have even more ways to have the chords "progressing" while still avoiding a major or minor identity.Very useful for corporate videos with a lot of voice-over, or for a scene that you need music to keep the energy moving but don't really want to force a specific mood.
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