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Practical Music Theory Lesson 2-a Chords (part 1): The simplest and most common type of chord is the triad. As the name implies, a triad is a chord made up of three notes. Most of the chords that we play every day are triads--a "C" chord, an "A" chord, and a "D" chord are all triads. In addition, minor chords such as "Cm", "Am", and "Dm" are all triads as well (we'll look at these in more detail in a minute). When the chord names get more complicated, and particularly when they contain numbers, they are no longer triads, and are called extended chords (this will be the topic of lesson 2b). Triads are the foundation for most of the other chords we play, so a thorough understanding of them is essential. Fortunately they're pretty easy to understand. There are four main "families" of triads: major, minor, diminished, and augmented. Major and minor are of course the most common (you probably already know a bunch of them). Augmented and diminished chords appear only occasionally in popular music, but they are quite common in jazz and classical music. ALL of the triads are built using the 1st, 3rd, and 5th degrees (the I, III, and V) of the major scale. HOWEVER, the third can be flatted (lowered by 1/2 step), and the 5th can be sharped (raised by 1/2 step) or flatted as well. These alterations of the third and fifth create the different types of triads, and this is what we'll be looking at in this lesson. Following is a brief chart that goes through the spelling of each type of triad, along with an audio example so that you can hear the differences. This chart is essentially a summary of everything on this page, so if you understand it completely, you can probably skip the rest of this page. And if you DON'T understand it, don't worry about it--that's what we'll be getting to in this lesson.
it is assumed by default that it is referring to a major triad. To get on with our discussion of triads, let's start with the table of major scales (we'll be referring back to this frequently):
Major Triads We'll start with major triads because they're the most common and the simplest to understand. When you play a "C" chord, you are technically playing a "C major triad." When you play an "E" chord, you are playing an "E major triad." However, you don't need to specify that it's a major triad; you can just say, "It's an E chord," or even "It's an E," and musicians will understand you to mean an E major triad. To build a major triad, you start with a "root" note, which will be the letter name of your chord. In other words, the root note of a C chord is a C; the root note of an A chord is an A (I guess it seems obvious when you put it in writing). Then, to figure out what notes go into the triad, you will refer to the major scale that begins with the same root note. Let's start with an example in C major. We want to build a C chord, a.k.a. a C major triad, so we will refer to the C major scale in the table above. The first note of the triad is the "root", or the "I", which is a C. To get the second note of the triad, we skip over one note of the scale to the third to the III, which is an E. Then we skip over another note to the fifth (V), which is a G. Again, this is what is known as building a chord in thirds because each leap we take within the scale is in the interval of a third. We can also say that the E is the "third" of the C chord (and to be more specific, it is the major third), and G is the fifth.
C Major triad = C - E -
G Now let's build an E major triad. Look at the table above, this time reading across beginning with E. If we take the I, III, and V from the E major scale, we get E, G#, and B. These are the notes in an E chord (or more specifically, an E major triad). The same goes for whatever root note we use. Here are a few more examples--check back to the table of major scales to see that they all make sense: A (A
major Triad) = A C# E It should also be added that ANY COMBINATION of the notes in a triad will still make up the same triad. The notes can appear in any order and they can be doubled up at will; the result will still be that same triad. Take a look at the open-position C chord that most people are familiar with from day one:
From low to high (not including the sixth string, which is not played in this chord), the notes are C, E, G, C, and E. This chord is still a C major triad, even though the C and E notes appear twice each. Now take a look at the open position
E chord: Minor Triads The next most common type of triad is the minor triad. To build the minor triad, we will again pick our root note and refer to the major scale built from that root (don't let this confuse you--even though we are building a minor triad, we are going to refer to the major scale to figure out what notes to use). Again, as we do with all triads, we look at the I, III, and V. HOWEVER, this time, we are going to "flat" the third, meaning lower it by 1/2 step. So, to re-use our above example in C, if we take the I, III, and V from the C scale, we get C, E, and G. BUT, again, we are going to flat the III, which gives us an Eb instead of an E. Therefore, the notes in a Cm triad are C, Eb, and G. C minor
triad = C - Eb - G Looking at the key of A for another example, the I, III, and V from the A scale gives us A, C#, and E. To make it a minor chord, we flat the third, which brings our C# down to a C. Therefore, an Am triad is spelled A-C-E. It is very easy to see and hear the
difference between an A chord and an Am chord on the guitar. Take
a look at the You can also easily see the same type
of relationship between E
and Em I always thought it was interesting that changing one note by one half step can make such a big difference in the sound of the chord. Diminished Triads While diminished triads are not exactly common in rock and pop music, they are certainly not unheard of. They perform a very useful function within a chord progression (which we'll study in lesson 2e). To build a diminished triad, we'll begin with a root note and once again refer to the major scale from the same root. We have our root note (I), and as we do with a minor chord, we flat the 3rd (bIII). And for the dimished triad, we also flat the 5th (bV). Therefore the diminished triad is spelled I - bIII - bV. Looking to the key of C major for an example, we would have a C, an Eb, and a Gb. C diminished
triad = C - Eb - Gb Notice that the diminished chord has a very unsettling, dissonant sound. You might be surprised how beautiful it can sound when put in the right context. That's the kind of thing we'll talk about in lesson 2e. Augmented Triads Augmented triads are probably the least common in rock and pop, but they definitely do happen occasionally, and they are used fairly regularly in jazz and classical music. An augmented triad is built with a root (I) and a 3rd (III), just like a major triad. However, the 5th is sharped in this case (#V). Therefore an augmented triad is comprised of I - III - #V. In the key of C, this would give us C - E - G#. C augmented
triad = C - E - G# You'll notice that the augmented chord has a pretty bizarre sound as well. It too has an important function in chord progressions, and can create some very interesting sounds when handled with care.
Move on to the next section:
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