Learning major chords is essential to playing any song, as they use letters similar to those on a musical staff for easy memorization.
counting half steps can help when understanding intervals. Doing this will also assist with understanding the Circle of Fifths.
Scales
Knowledge of the major scale can be immensely helpful when learning chords. In fact, it is recommended that beginners start out by studying scales before moving onto chords.
Each major triad is composed of three notes from its associated major scale. What distinguishes major from minor chords is their respective third note – with major chords having brighter, more cheerful tones while minor chords sounding melancholic and saddening in sound quality.
There are other variations of triads as well, including Major 6th (also called “added 6th”) and less commonly, Cadd9 chords. Both of these variations simply offer alternate ways of writing the same thing by adding an extra tone to each stack of thirds; not to be confused with dominant 9th, which refers to whole scale variations of Cmaj7 chords; also see Chord Inversions to see how you can play these chords differently.
Intervals
Intervals are the distances between notes, such as from C to G (seven half steps). An interval’s quality can be classified as perfect, major, augmented or diminished based on its size compared to its nearest neighbor – perfect fifth intervals are perfect; those wider or narrower than that qualify as either “augmented” or “diminished”, such as seven-semitone fifths are either “augmented” or “diminished.”
Size of intervals can be determined both by their appearance on the staff and by how many half steps on a keyboard (including black keys). For instance, C to D constitutes a major second since its half steps match those on both.
Each major chord consists of three tones known as its root note, third tone and fifth tone – often called its root note – which are known collectively as its three tones: root note, third tone and fifth tone. A major chord is identified by its root note which always sounds lowest while its third and fifth tones can differ by four or three half steps depending on its type.
Triads
Triad chords consist of three distinct pitch classes – root, third and fifth – which can be combined in various ways to form new chords of various kinds and variations.
As with intervals, triads also vary in terms of quality: major, minor, diminished and augmented triads are all distinct in sound with differing intervals from root to chordal fifth defining each of their unique sounds.
Example: A triad composed on the root A of a C major scale will produce a minor sound due to being only two half steps apart; but, when played on its counterpart root G of an F major scale it would produce major tones due to no sharps in this key signature.
Roman numerals offer us a fast and concise method of communicating key information about a chord when reading music scores. For instance, 11 indicates it as being major chord; 22 stands for dominant.
Minor Chords
Major chords tend to elicit more vibrant, joyful sounds while minor ones can often have darker hues. Both types are composed of three notes that form an arch; their quality depends on whether its root note lies between three notes or five notes in terms of interval lengths between root note and third or fifth note.
This interval can either be a major third (four semitones) or minor third (three semitones). To create a minor chord, simply play the root note while adding on its third and fifth notes from a minor scale scale on top.
This formula applies when creating chords in any key. To build a major chord, start by choosing any of the twelve tones on the chromatic scale and arranging your notes as follows: Root — 3rd — 5th with each note increasing by four half steps up or four half steps down for major or minor thirds respectively. The root will remain constant while each subsequent note increases by half steps (major or minor third).