The previous chapter dealt with intervals consisting of two notes. Three or more notes sounding at the same time produces a chord. A three-note chord is a triad (tri- means “three,” as in tricycle and triangle). Triads are the most common chords in Western harmony, and it is essential to understand them. Once you have mastered the triad as the basic chord, it will be easy to add other scale degrees to produce more extensive chord structures.
Chords are harmony. Harmony gives music color, depth, emotion, structure, and shape. Not all music has harmony. The Gregorian chant that was used in the early Roman Catholic Church did not use harmony. It was a single line of music referred to as monophonic, meaning “single sounding.” Mono comes from the Greek monos, meaning “single.” Music is monophonic if there is only one line heard, regardless of how many musicians are involved: a choir of ten thousand people singing Happy Birthday in unison is monophonic, whereas a cat walking on a piano, hitting two keys at once, is not.
Harmony is used in most churches today when the congregation sings a hymn, which is homophonic. Homophonic is a melody line that is accompanied, such as a singer accompanying herself with chords on a guitar. Homophonic chords are all essentially triads, some with extra notes added; the triad comes first. A thorough understanding of the triad is required before continuing to the next chapter.
Secret 47: Major Triads
A major triad is constructed by taking the first, third, and fifth notes from the major scale of the bottom note of the triad (when lined up line-line-line or space-space-space); that is, from the scale that is the name of the triad. For example, to build a C major triad, take the first, third, and fifth notes from the C major scale. In a C major scale, C is the first note, E is the third note, and G is the fifth note. The C major triad thus consists of C-E-G. The D major triad consists of the first, third, and fifth notes of the D major scale—D-F-A.
Notice that these notes are space-space-space or line-line-line. The bottom note is called the root, the note that is a third higher is the third, and the note a fifth higher is the fifth. When you build a triad on the tonic, the root is the tonic, the fifth is the dominant, and the middle note is the mediant. When the three notes of the triad look like a snowman, the triad is in root position.
Try building the E major triad. Think of the key of E, which has B, E, and A in its key signature. Now take the first, third, and fifth notes out to produce E-G-B. As you can see, it is very important that one knows the key signatures very well. Building intervals, triads, and various types of chords all depend on knowing the key signatures.
The lower third of the triad—in this example, E to G—is a major third. The upper third of the triad—G to B—is a minor third. You might suppose that when you add one third to another third, you would get a sixth. Try it: the interval from the lowest note, E, to the top note, B, is a fifth—not a sixth. This, once again, is because there is no zero in music. Try it by adding steps. Add a major second to a minor second starting on A. A goes up to B; this is a major second. B goes up to C; this is a minor second. However, the interval from A to C is a minor third—not a fourth. Therefore, in music, two plus two equals three, not four.
Secret 48: Minor Triads
To build a minor triad, simply take a major triad and lower the third a half step. Turning the C major triad (C-E-G) into the C minor triad, we get C-E-G. Notice that the outer interval, the fifth, is still the same and it is still made of two thirds, one major and one minor; the difference is that now the minor third is built on the root. The D major triad is D-F-A; the D minor triad is D-F-A (though it is traditional to use lowercase letters when speaking of the minor key, I am using capital letters to ensure clarity). You may also build a minor triad by taking the first, third, and fifth notes of the minor scale for the minor triad, just the same as we took the first, third, and fifth notes of the major scale for the major triad. The D minor scale is D-E-F-G-A-B-C-D. The D minor triad is D-F-A, the first, third, and fifth notes from this D minor scale. The C minor scale is C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C (the relative major being E major). The C minor triad is the first, third, and fifth notes of the C minor scale: C-E-G. Whether you take a major triad and lower the third a half step or take the first, third, and fifth notes from the minor scale of the same name (D major and D minor, for example), it comes out to be the same answer.
Secret 49: Augmented Triads
Building an augmented triad (symbol: +) is very simple if you can build a major triad. To build an augmented triad, first build a major triad in root position. To turn this major triad into an augmented triad, simply raise the fifth degree of the triad a half step. Remember, when building the triad with all notes on lines or all notes on spaces, it is in root position. That is, root-third-fifth. To turn a C major triad (C-E-G) into a C augmented triad, raise the fifth, G, to a G sharp. The C augmented triad (C+) is, thus, C-E-G. You can also consider the augmented triad to be built of two major thirds. C to E is a major third, and E to G is another major third.
To build a D augmented triad, first build a D major: D-F-A. Raising the A to A produces D-F-A, a D augmented triad. Notice that the name of the triad, the same as the name of the scale, takes its name from the root note. The augmented triad has an interval of a major third sitting on top of a major third. Students will sometimes get augmented and diminished mixed up. Remember, when you augment something, you give it more. If you augment your income, you make more money. When you augment a triad, you give it more half steps.
The major and minor triads took their name from the quality of the third above the root. If the third is major (C-E-G), the triad is major. If the third is minor (C-E-G), the triad is minor. Augmented and diminished triads, however, take their name from the quality of the fifth above the root, not the third. We do not build triads with augmented or diminished thirds, because they would not sound like triads. In order for a chord to sound like a triad, we must hear that it is made of major and minor thirds. Once again, I cannot stress enough the importance of knowing the key signatures. In order to build intervals, you need to know key signatures. In order to build triads and chords, you need to know intervals.
Secret 50: Diminished Triads
The diminished triad (symbol: o) may take a little more thinking. First, build the minor triad, and then lower the fifth to get the diminished triad. Remember that the augmented is raising the fifth from the major and the diminished is lowering the fifth from the minor. If C-E-G is major, then C-E-G is minor. To get the diminished, lower the G to G. C-E-G is a C diminished triad (Co). Build a D diminished triad. D-F-A is major; lower the third to get the minor, D-F-A. Now lower the fifth to get the D diminished triad: D-F-A. The diminished triad has an interval of a minor third sitting on top of a minor third.
Always build the major triad first; then from the major triad build augmented, minor, or diminished. For example to build an A flat diminished triad, the thought process is (A major has four flats) A-C-E is a major triad, A-C-E is a minor triad, and A-C-E is a diminished triad. Remember, when you diminish something, you make it smaller. When you diminish a major triad, you take half steps away from it, thus making it smaller.
If you are a keyboard player, a guitarist, bass player, singer, or jazz musician, you may have to read from a lead sheet. A lead sheet has the melody with chord symbols above the melody indicating to the musicians what chords to play with particular parts of the melody. Using the information from this chapter, let’s see what some chord symbols may look like. Let’s use the C major triad for an example. C, Cma, Cmaj, and CM can all indicate a C major triad in root position. We will talk about chords that are not in root position in chapter 9. For C minor, the chord symbol may be c (lowercase), Cmi, Cm, C-. The C augmented chord may look like C+ or C aug. The C diminished chord may be Co or C dim. As you can see, there is no standard notation. Lead sheet symbols are also used for more complex chords, not just triads. These will be discussed in the next chapter, but still with regard to root position.
Yes it is true, early to bed, early to rise, makes your practicing healthy, wealthy, and wise.