The Third Gets Too Much Credit

JUN 28, 2025 Song: Three is a magic number

One note always works. The root.

Another almost always works. The fifth.

Everything else is situational.

That includes the third.

I used to think it was essential. That it defined the chord. Major or minor. That you had to include it or you weren’t really playing the harmony.

But when I sit down at the keyboard and try to match the feel of a song—not interpret it, not reharmonize it, just match it—I don’t hear the third standing out.

Sometimes it’s there. Prominently. Sometimes it’s soft or buried. Sometimes it’s not there at all.

The same could be said of the sixth. The ninth. The second. The fourth.

They’re color tones.

The third might be the most common one, but I’m not even sure of that. I haven’t kept stats. I just know it doesn’t dominate the way theory made it sound.

On the chord chart it might say C. I always thought that meant the E would be in there. But what I hear on the recording is often another story.

I play the root. Then the fifth. Then I listen.

Maybe it wants a third. Maybe it wants something else. Maybe it wants space.

And the third? Just one of many options. No more sacred than the rest.