Lesson #3 - Chords (Major and Minor Triads)

Because major and minor chords make up about 80% of pop music. Everything else can be seen as slight additions/revisions to those chords. For now, I'll discuss major and minor triads, which are 3-note chords.

Major Triads

Remember major 3rd and minor 3rd intervals? You better, because those are essentially the foundation of chord structures. To form a major triad on any one note (for example, C), we first go up a major third from the root. C is the root, so going up a major third gives you E



That covers two notes of the triad. To get the last note, start on the second note (the E in this case), and go up a minor third



In conclusion:



As always, I encourage you to play out the notes so you can hear what the chords sound like. You can play multiple notes at one time using this virtual keyboard.

Since I'm such a nice guy, rather than making you figure out each major chord on your own, I'll just list them out. The first note of each triad is the name of the chord (e.g., F A C is an F major triad). Also remember that black keys can have two different note names (e.g., Bb and A# are the same, as is D# and Eb).

C E G
F A C
Bb D F
Eb G Bb
Ab C Eb
Db F Ab
F# A# C#
B D# F#
E G# B
A C# E
D F# A
G B D

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Got all that? I hope so. Because now it's time for minor triads!
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Minor Triads

There are a few ways in which you can think about minor triads. The "proper" way is to think about the intervals. Whereas a major triad contains a major third, and THEN a minor, a minor triad is the opposite. A minor triad starts with a minor third and ends with a major third.

In a nutshell:







If you're particularly observant, you might have noticed that 2 out of the 3 notes of a major and minor chord are the same. The root (in this case, C) and the fifth (G) are the same in both major and minor. However, the third is E in a C major triad, but Eb in minor. In other words, the third of a minor chord is one semitone lower than the third of a major. This little trick may help you remember minor chords more easily if you don't want to go through the hassle of calculating those intervals every time.

But for your convenience, I'll list out all of the minor triads just like I did with major:


C Eb G
F Ab C
Bb Db F
Eb Gb Bb
Ab B Eb **
Db E Ab **
F# A C#
B D F#
E G B
A C E
D F A
G Bb D


** Pure music theorists would argue that the proper spellings for these chords should contain Cb instead of B, and Fb instead of E. Ignore them. Just use B and E. It's a lot easier.

Rather than add even more to this excruciatingly long entry, I'll provide an example of how these chords are used in a separate post. Stay tuned!

Lesson #2 - Intervals

If you've hung around musical people before, you might have heard someone talk about "thirds," "fourths" or "fifths." These people are talking about intervals, a musical concept that can seem rather intimidating unless someone explains them to you. And that's exactly what I'm going to do!

You may recall me mentioning that the distance between any two consecutive notes on the piano is called a semitone. A semitone, also called a half-step, is just an interval, and every other interval is measured by its number of semitones. Before I explain this further, here's a list of all the intervals you will need to know:

1 Semitone - Minor Second
2 Semitones - Major Second
**3 Semitones - Minor Third**
**4 Semitones - Major Third**
**5 Semitones - Perfect Fourth**
6 Semitones - Tritone
**7 Semitones - Perfect Fifth**
8 Semitones - Minor Sixth
**9 Semitones - Major Sixth**
10 Semitones - Minor Seventh
11 Semitones - Major Seventh
**12 Semitones - Octave**

I've starred and bolded the ones that are important for now. Let's go over each of these individually:

Major Third


Remember that a major third is 4 semitones away from the starting note. C to E is a major third, and so is E to G# (because of the funky pairs of B/C and E/F).

Don't forget about the useful Virtual Keyboard so you can play the notes yourself to see what these intervals sound like.

Minor Third



I decided to cover minor thirds after major thirds just because people generally cover major before minor when they learn music. Regardless, the concept is similar.

Minor thirds are 3 semitones away from their root notes. An Eb is 3 semitones above a C.

***Useful note: This will come up in the next lesson, but the third is the foundation of pretty much all chords. For example, a C chord is a C, a major third from C (which is E), and a minor third from E (which is G). Basically, if you can do thirds, you can do chords!**

Perfect Fourth and Fifths



Fourths and Fifths are a little different. Unlike other intervals, fourths and fifths can never be major or minor, but cam only be perfect, augmented or diminished. Perfect fourths and fifth are the more commons ones, so let's just focus on those. As you can see, a note is a perfect fourth if it's 5 semitones away from the starting note and a perfect fifth if it's 7 semitones away.

Major Sixth



Self-explanatory at this point. 9 semitones will give you a major sixth.

Octave



You can remember that an octave is 12 semitones, but the easiest way to remember is just that an octave is just the next instance of the same note on the piano (e.g., an octave from G is the next closest G in either direction).

There are a few other things I should note:

- The same interval from the same note in opposite directions will NOT yield the same pitch class. For example, a major sixth UP from C is an A, but a major sixth DOWN from C is an Eb.

- On the same note, in order to get to the same note going in one direction as the other, all you need to do is invert the interval and the quality. Here's what I mean:

If you go up a major sixth from C, you get an A. If you want to go DOWN to A from C, you invert the major sixth. To invert an interval, you subtract the number from 9 and invert the quality. Major and minor are inverses of each other, as are diminished and augmented (not covered here). Perfect stays perfect.

So, to invert the major sixth, major becomes minor, and then you subtract 6 from 9 (9 - 6 = 3). Therefore, the inverse of a major sixth is a minor third. In other words, going up a major sixth from C will yield the same pitch class as going down a minor third from C (A).

- Intervals from a minor second to an octave are simple intervals. Intervals above that are called compound intervals. To get the corresponding simple interval from a compound, simply subtract 7. For example, A major ninth is essentially the same thing as a major second (just separated by an additional octave).


Remember these intervals and simple tips, practice with them on a piano or the online keyboard, and you'll be able to not only play, but understand chords.

Next lesson: *guess what it is. Go on, guess*

CHORDS!!