Which chords are good for which mood?

Each type of chord has a certain feeling or mood. If you are working on a chord progression, you may want to take a look at the following list to get some inspiration. But please keep in mind that the feeling of a chord can change - the chords that are used in the rest of the progression are influential as well.

Triads:

Major (like "Cmaj"): Happy, bright, satisfied.
Minor (like "Cmin"): Sad, dark, melancholic, mysterious, serious.
Diminished (like "Cdim"): Spooky, fearful, doomed.
Augmented (like "Caug"): Disharmonic, suspenseful.
Suspended (like "Csus4"): Tension, majestic.
Powerchords (like "C5"): Powerful, forceful.

Four note chords:

(Dominant) Seventh (like "Cdom7"): Funky, soulful, strong.
Major Seventh (like "Cmaj7"): Smooth, soft, jazzy, calm, thoughtful.
Minor Seventh (like "Cmin7"): Smooth, jazzy, mellow, contemplative.
Added Ninth (like "Cadd9"): Energetic, bright.
Major Sixth (like "C6"): Fun, playful.
Minor Sixth (like "Cmin6"): Dark, mysterious.
Suspended Fourth (like "C7sus4"): Tension.

Cheat sheet / infographic

You can download a free cheat sheet here.

Listening examples

I made a video that contains examples for all the mentioned chords:
https://youtu.be/6QDoj14t6qo

Chord tension

Turn on "Settings -> Chords View: Show chord tension" in Sundog to find out which chords sound disharmonic (high tension) and which sound harmonic (low tension).

Harmonic chord buttons will have an empty background, disharmonic chord buttons will have strong stripes in the background.

This will help you find the right chords quickly: