Create Stunning Ambient Chords With These Simple Techniques

Have you ever struggled to create ambient chords that truly capture an ethereal and atmospheric vibe? Maybe you’ve felt stuck in traditional progressions, or your voicings feel too mechanical or uninspired.

Today I’ll share four key techniques to help you craft ambient harmonies that feel expansive and emotional. We’ll explore different chords voicings and how to connect them, creating chord extensions, the use of pedal notes, and ways to add subtle movement to your chords.

If that sounds interesting, let’s get into it!

KNOW YOUR CHORDS

I’m just going to say this right out of the gate. You need to know how the different chords sound… so that when you hear them, at least you have a good feel for what you are hearing in your head.

Now… each chord might make you feel in a certain way or take you to a certain place but you also have to consider the harmonic context in which it lives. This means paying attention to how a chord sequence makes you feel or how going from chord A to chord B moved you… not just a specific chord.

So, pay attention to that. To gain more experience, definitely look at what’s happening in the music you like, the moments that move you and then make sense of what’s happening. What chords are they using…are those extended chords…how are they voiced…and that brings us to the next section.

CHORD VOICINGS AND CONNECTION

You can have nice ambient harmony with chords that are not “complicated” like with simple triads and seventh chords specially if they are used thoughtfully.

And the first thing we’re going to look at is how to put down the notes of such chords; in other words, how you are going to voice your chords.

You’ll be hearing the same two chords in close and the open voicing throughout the different registers:

Noticed how different it is if you choose different chord voicings and the effect it has throughout the register? This too has an emotional weight that you should consider because the way you choose to voice your chords affects their resonance which will then be carried throughout the music.

Needless to say, you need to let the chords ring out using long sustained sounds. This means that we are not looking at fast changing chords. Let them breathe. Use some delay, reverb to enhance the sense of space and sustain, like this:

As you could see, there were no big jumps from the notes of one chord to the other. What I did was to arrange the notes of the next chord in a way that the notes of the previous chord would be either maintained, because they were sharing a common note, or would move in the smallest interval possible – a step-wise movement. This will definitely make your chord succession sound smoother:

The least you move your notes, the smoother the transition will be. We will be making use of this aspect in the following section.

EXPLORING CHORD EXTENSIONS THROUGH VOICE MOVEMENT

We are going to look at two ways to add chord extensions to your ambient chords. One is by hinging and the other is by thinking of anticipations or suspensions as a way to help us connect with the following chord.

So, what is hinging? It consist of simply moving one of the notes of a chord up or down, in step-wise movement. As an example, let’s say you have a C maj7 chord with the notes C, E, G and B. Keep the bass in C, and if you hinge C to D, now you have a C maj9 chord.

And if you now do the same with B to A, now you have a C 6/9 chord:

This is a way of adding extended notes to your chords BUT the main reason why we are looking at it is because this is a way of connecting chords through voice movement. Let’s hear this technique used in a chord progression:

This time I chose not to change the bass note and just focus on the upper harmonic structure. But you definitely can as a way to prepare a smoother movement to the next chord!

The other way of creating chord extensions that we are going to look at is by using anticipation and suspension. Arguably, in a way, this can be seen as a form of hinging, as you will see.

As far as anticipations go, it is when you introduce a note of the next chord in the preceding chord. It’s like adding a common note with the next chord, if there isn’t one already:

And suspension is when you extend a note from the previous chord to the next and then resolve it to a note of the arrival chord.

All in all, these are just a couple of suggestions for adding extended notes to your chords. Don’t be afraid to use dissonances and add extra notes to the simple chords you started with as these can add more emotional depth to your music.

Incidentally, now that you have created these new chords, why not try to figure out a way to use those. Since we are only working with chord colors and are not worried about functionality, I’m encouraging you to play around with the order in which you play the chords you came up with, like in this example:

USING PEDAL NOTES FOR DISSONANCE AND CONNECTION

Another way of connecting chords and explore different harmonic landscapes and vibes is by using pedal notes — a sustained note that stays constant while chords change around it.

This is a great solution if your chords feel disconnected or lack emotional depth. And mind you that you can place pedal notes on the bottom, mid or top of the chord. In the next examples, you’ll first hear the chord succession we already used and then how using this technique can affect the harmonic color and mood:

The first example is the one with the pedal note on the bottom:

Now the same but with the hanging note on the top:

And finally, the pedal note in the middle register:

I only adjusted the chord voicings in this last example to carve space for the two pedal notes I ended up using. Overall, pedal notes create a thread that tie everything together, even when some dissonances occur. But again, don’t shy away from letting the pedal notes clash with the chords—it often resolves beautifully and adds tension that feels natural in ambient music.

ADDING SUBTLE TEXTURES AND MOVEMENT

Finally, let’s add subtle textures to keep your ambient chords evolving over time. If your chords feel stagnant, “blocky” or rigid, these ideas can add life and expression to them.

As you may have noticed, here and there I’ve used some percussion loops and that definitely help the slow chord progressions move forward. And with that said, let’s get into other things that you may consider doing:

1. ARPEGGIATE SLOWLY – Instead of playing the chord all at once, you can roll through the notes and find ways of presenting it in a different order:

2. SMALL MELODIC FRAGMENTS – you can add very short and slow moving melodies to enhance the overall harmonic colors and establish character.

3. HINGING – We’ve already went through this one. Just move or replace the third or fifth of a chord to a 2nd, 4th, or 6th to create an airy, unresolved feel. That way you can also explore the melodic movements between chords.

4. ADDING EXTRA LAYERS – For depth and texture, combine different types of sounds, use arpeggiators, do swells in different instruments or use non-musical soundscapes underneath your harmonies.

These subtle variations can make even static harmonies feel alive and evolving, perfect for creating immersive soundscapes. And by the way, feel free to combine them 🙂

FINAL THOUGHTS

So there you have it—four approaches for you to consider while creating ambient and atmospheric chords. Try these techniques in your compositions and see how they add depth and emotion to your music:

• Chords Voicings
• Chord Extensions
• Pedal Notes
• Adding Subtle Movement to Chords

That’s it for today 🙂 Happy Composing!