Jazz musicians often employ chords known as Major seven or Major nine that extend triads by adding either a seventh or ninth interval on top of their root note.
A major chord consists of the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of its associated major scale while its opposite contains the first note in that major scale’s 3rd degree and so forth.
Triads
Triads are the basic building blocks of chords. A triad is composed of three notes stacked in thirds. The first note, known as the root, is surrounded by two other notes that are one third and five fifth above it – this form allows it to be easily stacked in thirds if necessary. A major or minor triad can be created easily by starting with its tonic of any scale then adding its third and fifth notes from its key signature (for example C major scale uses C, E and G as starting points; when written on staff it looks like a snowperson; similarly minor triads only require two notes F and A).
Different qualities of triads are distinguished by the intervals that form between their roots and third, or between fourth and fifth notes, or between third and fifth notes, for instance major and minor triads contain either major or minor thirds between roots and third, with minor thirds between roots and fourth.
Major triad
Major triads have an appealing sound, making them popular across multiple genres of music. Furthermore, they’re great tools for creating arpeggios and passing chords – the basic major triad consists of the first, third and fifth notes in any given scale, with four half steps between third note and root note, followed by seven half steps between third and fifth note – this rule holds for any key!
Any major scale note can serve as the foundation of a triad. When this triad includes an additional seventh note, it’s known as an augmented triad – often found in pop and rock music.
Triad quality is determined by its intervals. Triads built using do, re, and sol (1, 4, (1, 3), and 5) are considered major in any key and indicated with capital letters following their roots; those built using mi, la, and ti are classified as minor in any major key and will display with a lowercase “mi”.
Minor triad
Minor triad chords are extremely useful tools that can be used to craft simple yet effective basslines. Furthermore, they’re an essential building block of many other chords, adding harmonic tension into songs. A minor triad consists of its root note; third note; fifth tone from scale; quality is determined by interval between root note and third tone – always an exact fifth in any key; quality also determines quality of chord.
The major triad has the same construction as its counterpart, except its middle note is lowered by one semitone to create more melancholy sound. Though different in appearance and tone from its counterpart, both major and minor triads serve to create emotional spaces and environments.
Since both major and minor triads share three notes, it’s essential that you become acquainted with them prior to diving into learning about minor triads. Furthermore, understanding how these chords fit together in a progression is also vitally important.
Scales
Scales are series of notes that belong together and serve as the foundation of melodies and chords in music. A scale can be composed using various intervals such as perfect fifth or major third; different intervals create unique sounds and can elicit different emotions in pieces of music. Some scales may be more popular than others; the blues scale, for instance, is popularly found across genres from gospel to heavy metal songs.
There are various kinds of scales, each one with its own formula for determining its notes. Some utilize step patterns like H (half note), W (whole note) and S (semitone). When using any scale it is essential to understand its order of notes in order to compose chords that fit a particular key – for instance a major chord always contains first, third and fifth notes from its scale.