Nearly all major chords consist of three-note intervals called triads; chords with more notes than three are considered extended chords.
Addition of minor and diminished intervals to a basic triad can create beautiful sounding chords that evoke emotion in music. In this guitar theory lesson we will look at how to form these fancier chords.
Triads
Triads are groups of three notes which are spaced a third apart and may come from any note on a major scale, making up chords. Triads play an essential role as they form the building blocks for chords.
Quality in triads can be identified by their interval between third and fifth notes – major triads will have a major interval while minor ones have minor intervals.
Raising or lowering a note creates other intervals, leading to various chord types. Dominant seventh chords feature major seventh intervals from their roots while diminished chords feature flattened seventh intervals.
As you play chords, pay close attention to their sound. Major triads usually sound complete and resolved while minor ones tend to have an undertone of sadness or melancholy. To practice distinguishing between major and minor triads in training environments, play some major and minor triads and listen back until you can easily differentiate them.
Triad Inversions
Learn to construct chords using the major scale as a basis for building more advanced ones, such as chord progressions, transposing to different keys, or ear training. Your knowledge will serve you well throughout your musical life!
Triads, the chords we create with three notes in succession, and their inversions (known as triad inversions ), refer to how these chords are arranged vertically. An original major triad contains its root chord with major third and perfect fifth notes stacked upon it for consonant stability (known as root position ).
However, chord arrangements can vary significantly and still retain their original interval qualities. A triad can be altered using first or second inversion to create a sixth above bass (G-B-D), with second inversion inverting second interval to create eighth above bass – both options sound excellent when used to extend tonic or dominant functions of scales.
Triad Root Position
A major triad is formed when stacking a major third and perfect fifth above its root note. The chord can be voiced or structured differently; for instance C-E-G, G-C-E or C-E-G-C are all valid forms of major triad. As these three notes make up the sound of major scale music, their understanding is so crucial.
Each chord quality (major, minor, diminished and augmented) can be defined by its intervals between these three notes. Each interval can be represented musically as a pitch with its own sound quality.
To draw a major triad on a staff, simply write your root note along the top line and draw an inverted “snowperson” shape for its notes that sit a third and fifth above it (this is known as the root position of your triad). Add any accidentals required by the key signature, and your major triad is complete!
Triad Second Inversion
As with the above method, this same process can be applied to creating major chords using any of music’s 12 root notes. Simply start from the root note, count up four half-steps for your major third, and three half-steps more for your perfect fifth chord.
Note the perfect fifth interval between your major third and its perfect fifth chord – an essential structural element in both major and minor chords – giving the major triad its characteristic bright, happy sound.
Minor triads also sound complete and resolved, though in a more melancholic tone. To form one, just reduce the second interval by one minor sixth; this voicing of a major triad is known as its second inversion as its perfect fifth is now in the bass as well as its root being present therein.