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Chord Transitions and Chord Sounds
Chord transitions amount to entire "chord sound" movements, not merely the movement of notes, chord roots, or inversions. Moving chord sounds (chord progressions) have an entirely different character from moving pitch sounds (melody).
So, a chord progression (such as the one above) is a movement of chords in their entirety. In fact, there’s no such thing as movement of “chord roots.” In harmony, chord-to-chord movement is of an entirely different sort, compared with melodic note-to-note movement. It sounds different, it feels different, it is different.
As the chord changes from G major (top line in Figure 44) to C major (middle line) to F major (bottom line), it’s clear that the overall sound of the chord changes have nothing to do with rising or falling pitch.
As the chords change, the notes within the chords don’t move much in pitch. In four cases, the notes remain in exactly the same position as the chord changes. In most of the other eight cases, the pitch change from chord to chord is only a semitone or a tone—up, in some cases, down in others.
What your brain hears as the chords change in sequence are changes in musical “color,” not rising or falling pitch.