What makes a song sound happy? It depends on your culture, study finds

There is a piece of music that seems happy. It's important to know whether it's a major or minor key. It is part of what distinguishes the cheeriness of walking on sunshine from the pensiveness of Ain't no sunshine

Australian research shows that the perception of major keys as happy and minor keys as sad is not universal.

The capacity of music to move us both physically and emotionally is something that we all know.

Major scales and minor scales are associated with a more melancholy feeling and are one of the ways that composers communicate. Western people are very fond of this musical feature.

The phenomenon may occur in people without prior exposure to western music and its typical emotional associations.

They played music for people living in five remote communities in the Pacific region, as well as musicians and non- musicians based in the city.

A major and a minor are 888-609- 888-609- 888-609- A semitone lower is the smallest musical interval possible on a piano.

The participants were given a choice of which of the two progressions sounded better.

The study participants had differing levels of exposure to western music, one group had only sporadic experience of western-like music for at least seven years prior to the study

There was no correlation between major chords and perceived happiness in this group. They are just as likely to choose the minor or scale as they are to be happy.

It was found that the emotional effect was the most important factor in determining whether a musician was happy or not.

A piece of music in a minor key has a lower average pitch than a piece of music in a major key. Higher-pitched sounds are related to submission and contentment, and lower-pitched sounds are related to aggression and dominance.

The results of the study are in line with other areas of the world. The findings of the study were similar to those of the Khowar and Kalash tribes.

There are bright and green colors in the city.

The evidence is starting to show that this is a cultural phenomenon, not a universal phenomenon.

The link between musical features and perceived happiness is hypothesised by the researchers.

The mere-exposure effect is a phenomenon in psychology where we tend to have a preference for things we are exposed to more often. Major and minor chords are common in western music, but they're not as common as minor ones.

A second hypothesis is associative conditioning, which states that repeated pairs of happy events with music in major keys and sombre events with minor keys have reinforced emotional links over time. The repeated use of the Bridal Chorus at weddings and the Marche Funbre at funerals are examples.

One of the main reasons people listen to music is to regulate their moods and emotions, according to Dr. Krause.

The individual and the context in which they are listening to music affect the way they respond to music. She said that the three of them work together to affect how we respond to what we hear.