Music may convey or elicit emotional responses in listeners. After reviewing some of the theories and mechanisms concerning music and emotion, two experiments are presented. In the first experiment, participants rated the sadness of melodies that were constructed using artificial scales. It was found that melodies based on scales with lowered pitches were perceived as sadder than melodies based on scales with raised pitches. A modest explanation for the sadness of the minor mode is then proposed: in comparison to the normative major mode, the minor mode may be perceived as lower than normal. In the second experiment, an affective priming paradigm for music was designed. Specifically, participants categorized words as positive or negative while listening to chord progressions, scoring points for fast and accurate responses. It was found that, on average, positive words were categorized more quickly during the major chord progressions, while negative words were categorized more quickly during the minor chord progressions. However, these differences in reaction time were not statistically significant, and could not be used to predict the progressions that were heard.