Chords form the fundamental building blocks of music. There are different types of chords such as major, minor and seventh chords.
Utilising the same intervals (the space between two notes) when building each type of chord is extremely important. For instance, C-E-G form a C major chord; to form an F major chord from scratch you would start on F and count up four half steps until reaching G.
Root Note
Root notes of major chords serve as the building block for their remainder. Usually the lowest note from a triad, this would be G for example in a G major chord; then up four half steps would come the third note B before finally dropping three and a half steps for D at its major third note – with G and D representing their fifth notes respectively.
All three notes combined together make up a major triad chord, which is always named for its root note. No matter where on the piano keyboard it occurs; for example, C – E – G still constitutes a C major chord. Some triads also feature first inversion, wherein their bottom note moves up an octave from its original location.
Third Note
A major chord is composed of three notes – its root, major third and perfect fifth (1 – 3 – 5). While every chord has its own distinct sound, their number of half steps between all three notes remains constant regardless of its inversion or voicing; for example, when playing the major C chord it always contains three C notes as its root note, an E major third note and G for its perfect fifth note.
Combinations of intervals make up the sound of chords. A major chord contains 4 half steps (or semitones) between its root note and middle note or major third; for a minor chord this distance drops to two half steps between adjacent keys – including white and black keys – where half steps can be counted by moving one finger from key directly above or below it.
Fifth Note
To create a major chord, follow this pattern starting from the tonic note of your key and counting up from it until the fifth note beyond (count the lines or spaces on a music staff above your tonic note, up until fifth note and beyond); this will reveal all the intervals necessary for creating any type of major chord – diminished minor perfect or augmented!
A major triad chord is composed of three notes – a root note, major third higher note and perfect fifth higher note – to form its most frequently encountered major triad chord. This structure creates the joyful sounding major chord.
Other chord structures also follow this same structure; for instance, G7 (the V chord in C major scale) can be defined as simply being a G triad with an extra minor seventh tone added on top, represented by the “sus” designation of its name (Asus2 or Esus4) – just as how Dmaj9 chord is created from stacking Cmaj9 tonic chords with an extra ninth tonic chord added at its center.
Intervals
Intervals, or distance between notes, form the building blocks of chords and are an integral component of musical scales. There are both perfect intervals such as unisons and fifths as well as augmented and diminished ones; perfect intervals have an agreeable and consonant sound associated with major scales.
To identify an interval, begin by counting its number by counting letter names of notes from bottom to top – including accidentals as they do not typically feature.
Once you know the number and quality of an interval, assess its quality by considering whether its top note belongs to the major scale of its bottom note. Major intervals tend to have more positive and upbeat qualities while minor ones have more somber qualities.