Danny Wiliiams Musician Educator Page 6

Lessons

DC&W.mp

Intervals and

Chords:

There are four basic types of triads in music. Major, Minor, Augmented and Diminished Even though Major and Minor make up the bulk of chords we use knowing Augmented and Dimished triads are just as important so dont let the weird sounds turn you away. Every triad is made of just three notes and three intervals as well. What I like to do whenever I want to know how to spell a triad is start with the main note of the chord. That main note is called the Root note. We will use C as our root note for all four triads in this exercise. Then I use the intervals to help build the chord. You can use just two intervals to do it but its really important to understand the third interval as well. Also if you memorize this pattern it will make things a lot easier. CEGBDFAC Here is how this works. Anytime you want to spell a C chord the letters will always be CEG. No mater if it is a Sharp, flat, natural, double sharp or double flat if its a C chord it has to be CEG. If you want to spell a E chord the letters will be EGB. A G chord GBD and so on. Now that everyone has had time to absorb the constuction of intervals I will now show how to use them in chord construction. There are many ways intervals can help us understand music better and learning the intervals involved in chords can make your improve and compositions better. First, I will start with the basic triads and then with the next lesson I will do four note chords otherwise known as Jazz chords. So stay tuned and if you have any questions just let me know.

1. Major

To build a Major triad you start

with the root note

which in this case is C

and then go up a Major 3rd.

Once you you have that note E

then go up a Minor 3rd from E.

That should give you a G.

That's it CEG is how you

spell a C major chord. If you

noticed that was just with two

intervals the other one is from

C to G which is a P5.

2. Minor

Minor triads are basically the same

except the the two intervals are

switched. Now its m3 then M3 but

the P5 stays the same. Cool huh.

1 3 5

C E G

v v

M3 m3

C - G= P5

1 b3 5

C Eb G

v v

m3 M3

C - G= P5

4. Dimished

3. Augmented

1 3 #5

C E G#

v v

M3 M3

C - G# = #5

Notice that if G# was an Ab it would be a m6 interval.

Dimished is like minor but

with two m3 intervals instead.

This triad is symmetrical as

well and can be found naturally

in the major scale. The third

interval in this one is the tritone.

Augmented is somewhat

like Major triads but with

two M3 intervals instead.

By doing this that makes this

chord symmetrical and now

the P5 is changed to a #5.

1 b3 b5

C Eb Gb

v v

m3 m3