Ep. 3: Triads and Chords(Part 1)

Triads and Chords Part 1 | Music Theory Podcast

In this episode of the Music Theory Podcast, we explore the foundational concepts of triads and chords—key elements in Western music theory. Whether you're a music theorist, music educator, musician, or music student, understanding triads and chords is essential for mastering harmony, chord progressions, and musical structure.

Triads and Chords Part 1 delves into the construction of the most common triads—major, minor, diminished, and augmented—and how these basic building blocks form the core of more complex chord structures. We also cover the theory behind root position, inversions, and voicing, helping you better understand how chords function within the context of harmony and tonal music.

This episode is ideal for music students looking to strengthen their theoretical knowledge or music educators seeking to deepen their understanding of chord formation. We also touch on the historical development of chord theory and its impact on modern composition and arranging.

By the end of the episode, you'll have a solid grasp of how to identify, build, and analyze triads and chords. Stay tuned for Part 2, where we’ll dive deeper into more complex chords and harmonic theory!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction w/ music
• 0:42 Intro to Episode 3: TRIADS AND CHORDS
• 1:37 Quick Recap of Episode 2
• 2:02 Definition : WHAT IS A CHORD?
• 3:01 Audio Examples : Random Chord Sounds
• 5:15 Chords Come From Scales
• 5:32 Definition : What Is A TRIAD?
• 7:07 Definition : What are SCALE DEGREES?
• 8:30 Definition : What is a ROOT NOTE?
• 9:10 Audio Examples : Build Your First Triads
• 12:53 What Makes the Triads Major vs. Minor?
• 14:39 Audio Example : All Diatonic Triads(from Major Scale)
• 15:51 Triads vs. Chords - Relationships
• 18:15 Audio Examples : Triads vs. Chords
• 21:19 Learning Break
• 22:38 Audio Examples : Triad Formation and Spacing Theory
• 24:24 Definition : What is A KEY?
• 27:21 Audio Example : All Chords In One Key
• 29:22 Outro/Recap

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:42

Welcome back to The Harmonious Blacksmith. This is episode three of the series, and I am your host, Kevin Patrick Fleming. Oh, thank you so much. Oh, wow. These are my peoples. I found my peoples. Thank you. Hope you're enjoying the series so far. Let's get right into it. Basically, I'm going to start by recapping the previous episode to catch anybody up out there that might just be tuning in on this episode. As a friendly reminder, this is a linear and cumulative podcast. So if you are coming into my podcast on this episode specifically, I think you'll find that it'll be beneficial for you to go back and listen to episodes one and two and go in order because everything is building on everything else. We previously talked all about scales and the components of scales, the building blocks, different types of scales, how they're constructed, how you can kind of view them on a piano or a keyboard to understand the differences between sharps and flats and natural notes and things like that. And that all leads to today's episode, which is all about chords. So let's start by defining what is a chord exactly.

SPEAKER_01: 2:07

Now,

SPEAKER_00: 2:09

I know you've heard chords, and so you basically understand what it sounds like. Sounds like a bunch of notes clumped together on top of each other that are played at the same time. That's basically it. And really more, a simpler definition would be any three or more notes stacked on top of each other and played or sung simultaneously. And I do mean any three notes. So you can literally pick three random notes on any instrument anywhere and stack them on top of each other, sound them simultaneously, and you have a chord. You may not know what to call it. You may not know what it is or how it functions. It may sound terrible to your ears, but by definition, it will still be a chord. Here are some examples of some sort of random three-note chords. So I literally just put my fingers in completely random shapes, some that were familiar and some just completely randomly made on my guitar, just to prove the point that a chord can be and is any of that. Now, all of those sounds weren't necessarily pleasant to our ears, were they? Some of them sound harsh and maybe even annoying to your ears, and others sound very smooth and agreeable to our ears. Do you recall the two terms that describe the difference between an agreeable sound and a harsh sound all the way back from episode one? consonants and dissonance. So recall, consonants is the agreeable smooth sound that we usually like to hear, and dissonance is kind of a harsh, disagreeable sound. But the point is, you have all of that when it comes to chords. So think of the definition of chords as a very general thing. It can be any three or more notes stacked on top of each other, no matter what. So if that's my definition of a chord, then how is it that we came to understand how to organize these sounds? In other words, how do we know which ones are going to sound good together and which ones are going to sound good in certain contexts or in certain music? It seems like there's a lot of ways we can do that, and there are, and that's what we're going to get into today. We will find out that the chords that we use in the context of our music creation are not random, like I was playing before. They're not just put together just for the heck of it in some random order, but they actually come from a carefully evolved, carefully calculated system that comes from... You guessed it, scales. So recall episode two, I'm just connecting the dots here, how scales are going to be the building blocks of everything. They're most certainly the building blocks of chords. And that brings me to my next concept, the triad. So what is a triad and how is that related to a chord? Well, I'm so glad that you asked that question. A triad is a fixed three-note chord that comes directly from the scale formulas. And triads are the foundation for all chords that we end up creating and using in Western harmony. So where do the triads come from and how can we put those to use? Recall episode two about scales when we talked about the formulas for major and minor scale. Do you remember those two formulas? The major scale formula was whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. And the minor scale formula was whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole, whole. So we are going to keep that in our back pockets while we're learning where triads and ultimately chords come from. So let's start with how do we form a triad? A triad is formed simply by skipping letters or skipping notes within a scale. We also know that the prefix tri, of course, means three, kind of like a triangle has three sides. So a triad will have exactly three notes or pitches, which are created by skipping notes within a scale. To understand how all of this fits and works together, I need to introduce another new concept, which is scale degrees. Scale degrees are just how we number notes in a scale based on their order. Recall that a major scale sounds like this.

UNKNOWN: 0:00

.

SPEAKER_00: 7:35

If I couple the scale degrees with it, then it would be more like this. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. So I'm simply numbering the scale notes in order. That's it. That's what scale degrees are. It's that simple. But we are going to find that it actually is very important going forward as far as what we're going to explore. Recall how the music alphabet wraps around. So when you go A, B, C, D, E, F, G, it starts right back on A again. Scale degrees are the same. It goes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and then 1. And 1 and 8 are the same. The octave is the same as 1. You'll get used to that pretty quickly. But it just wraps around just like the music alphabet. Another new term to know going forward is a root note. A root note is the first note of a scale or a chord, and it is the note that gives the scale or the chord its name. So I played a C major scale earlier. We call that a C major scale because it has a root note of C. And as we get into triads and chords, you'll find the same thing happens. If I tell you that we're playing a C triad, it's going to have a root of C or a starting point at the letter C. Same with chords. So let's build our first triad based on that C major scale. So remember, a triad is formed... by skipping notes in the scale. And now you know that's the same thing as skipping scale degrees. So I'll be referring to those two things interchangeably going forward. So C major scale has one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. And what we're gonna do to form our first triad is we're gonna take the first note, skip the second note, take the third note, skip the fourth note, and take the fifth note. So I'm taking one, three, and five. And that is a C triad. Again, the root note is C. The number one scale degree that I'm starting on is C. And I'm skipping two, going to three, skipping four, and going to five. When you stack those together in a harmony to make a chord, it sounds like this. Or in a higher range, it sounds like this. Now here's the kicker. We can build a triad off of every single note in any scale.

SPEAKER_01: 10:39

What? What's that you say, Kevin?

SPEAKER_00: 10:43

Yes, that is correct. We can build a triad off of any and every note within a scale. So we already determined that 1, 3, and 5 go together based on this skipping principle, because we're taking 1, skipping 2, taking 3, skipping 4, and taking 5, so we get 1, 3, and 5. But what about if we start on the second note in the scale, or the second scale degree? Then we would start on the second note, skip the 3rd, take the fourth note, skip the fifth, and take the sixth note. So now our triad would be two, four, and six. So again, the scale goes one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. So we just built a one, three, five, but now what if I start on the two? So that's the two. Once again, using this skipping principle that all triads are based on, we'll skip three and go to four. And then we'll skip five and go to six. So this triad sounds like this. Two, four, six. And when you put them all together, it sounds like this. So I'll remind you again that we are basing all of this off of a C major scale. And so I want to point something out that's quite interesting about the way we just built triads. So our first or root triad in C that starts on C or 1, right? Because remember, the root note is the first note of the scale or chord, but also it is scale degree number 1. So when we put 1, 3, and 5 together, it sounded like this. And that's a happy, bright major triad. But when I took two, four, and six in that same scale and put them together, it sounded like this. Well, that is a dark, kind of sad-sounding minor triad. Hmm, why does one turn out to be major, and why does the other one turn out to be minor? Hmm. That is something we are going to be exploring going forward. But first, let's go ahead and fill out all the triad possibilities we have based on that C major scale that we've been using. So we already built the first two triads. The first one was 1, 3, and 5. The second one started on 2, and then went to 4, and then went to 6. So we're just going to keep going now, and I'm going to start on scale degree 3, which skips to 5, which skips to 7. And then scale degree 4, which skips to 6, and skips back up to

SPEAKER_01: 13:41

1.

SPEAKER_00: 13:42

By the way, this one is higher than the original one. That's what we call the octave, if you remember that. So those are both Cs. It's just one's lower and one's higher. But instead of calling it number eight, we just call it one again for triad purposes. So now we keep going. If we start on scale degree five, we can go five, seven, and two. And then scale degree six would go six, one, three scale degree seven would go seven two four and then we're back to the original triad it's just an octave higher one three five That's what triads sound like in melodic fashion, which, remember, just means one note at a time in succession. But what do they sound like if we stack all the notes on top of each other? Well, let's try it. Well, the first one is 1, 3, 5, as you recall. Sounds like this. That's a major triad. When we stack 2, 4, and 6, we get this. That's a minor triad. When we stack 3, 5, and 7... That's a minor triad. When we stack four, six, and one, that's major. When we stack five, seven, and two, it's major again. When we stack six, one, and three, that's minor. When we stack seven, two, and four, that's what we call diminished. And then finally, we'll be back to the original one, three, and five. which is of course major. Now you heard me just use the word diminished, which I'm not even going to define yet. It's kind of the odd man out when it comes to these triads, and we do use it, but it's a good bit more rare. So I'm going to leave it behind for the simplicity's sake for today, and we're just going to do major and minor, but I will get to diminished soon. So let me go ahead and zoom out a little bit and just make the connection between triads and chords. So make sure it's absolutely clear that you understand the connection between the two. Recall that a chord is any three or more notes played or sung simultaneously. And when I say three or more, it could be three. four, five, six, etc. It could be 684 notes on top of each other, if you can muster that somehow. But the point is, it requires three notes, but it could be as many notes as you want in the end. But a triad is specifically three notes, and three notes specifically... stacked on top of each other in harmony based on that skipping principle that we went over previously. So based on that, I'll ask a couple questions just for your own knowledge. Are all triads chords by definition? And are all chords triads by definition? Hmm, let that bake your noodle for a moment. The answer is all triads are chords by definition. That is true. But the reverse is not true. All chords are not necessarily triads. Because remember, a triad has three pitches or three notes, but chords can have many, many more notes. Twice as many, three times as many, a hundred times as many. So all triads are chords, but not all chords are triads. So now let's revisit the key of C major again for some audio examples. So what I want to do is I want to go back through playing and hearing the seven triads that you get from a scale. And then let's correlate those to the possible chords that you can get that get built on top of those triads. So recall the C major scale. C major scale. And recall that we can build a triad using the skipping principle off of every pitch in that scale. So let's start on the root note C. Our first triad would be one, three, and five. Then our second triad would be two, four, and six. Next triad would be three, five, and seven. Then four, six, and one. Five, seven, and two. Six, one, and three. And finally, seven, two, and four. And then we're back to one, three, and five. So the first and most common way to build chords from these triads is literally just to double and triple the original triad notes. So let me explain. So I'll go back to the root triad in C major, which is 1, 3, and 5. And now I'm going to add more 1s, 3s, and 5s, but in a higher octave. So let me explain. So again, you heard... One, three, five, and together like that. So what if I add, what if I just keep going the octave higher from there and I add another one? One, three, five, and then the octave, which is one again, and then three again. Now, obviously, I'm playing on a guitar, so I just ran out of strings. So a lot of our chords on guitar are determined by how many strings we have. And of course, whatever instrument you play is going to determine how far you can take this, of course. But now, again, now I have one, three, five, one again, and three again. So I just doubled one and three. When I put all those together, it sounds like this. And in music, you know, you hear it sounding like this. So when you hear the triad, one, three, five. And then you heard a chord that is bigger than that with one, three, five, one and three. What you can tell right away is just the chord is just bigger and fuller sounding, and that's the point, right? We're trying to make a bigger, fuller, warmer, use any word you want to to describe what you're hearing sound overall. So triad really is the basis for bigger chords, but we can get really creative with how we add notes on top of that in the end to make many different types of chords. I have a monster episode coming up on chords and chord progressions, so do stay tuned for that. Okay, phew. Let's take a breath for a second. That was a whole lot of stuff under a microscope. The beauty of a podcast is you can always go back and listen to the episode again, but... Let's go ahead and zoom out for a minute and go back to a little bit more of an overview, meaning let's connect the dots. Make sure they're connected before you move on. So we started with a scale pattern that was formed using whole steps and half steps. Once we have that, Then we started enjoying stacking notes on top of each other from that scale to form triads. And triads are the basis for chords, all chords that we make in our system. And I want to pause to explain this. Many of you might be asking, but how did that come to be? Why is it that the triads work exactly the way they do by skipping notes? And how did that come to be? Think about it like this. If you put notes together that are too close together, they rub. They sound dissonant. They sound harsh. So, for example, if I stack scale degrees 1 and 2 on top of each other in harmony from the C major scale, it would sound like this.

UNKNOWN: 0:00

...

SPEAKER_00: 22:59

It really ends up being kind of a mushy sound, as you can tell. The notes are so close together, they just don't mesh together well. So they got away from that. When you put notes together that sound too far apart, they just don't blend together. They don't meld together. even if they're pleasant sounding together. So an example of some pleasant sounding notes, but that are just too far apart to meld properly would sound like this. So in the end, there was a happy medium in between those, which was just skipping notes within a scale. And they found out that that's what sounded best to our ears. It's actually that simple. And everything I just summed up for you leads to a very important concept called a key. So what is a key exactly? We've heard this term a lot in music, and you may or may not understand it at this point, but I think you'll be pleasantly surprised that we've already... Described it, basically. A key is the collection of seven notes formed from the whole step, half step scale pattern that create all melodies, harmonies, triads, and ultimately chords that all get married together to create a uniformly agreeable space in sound. So literally seven measly notes make up a key. Absorb that for a second, you know, because when you think of a key, you might think it's like a thousand sounds. Nope, it's seven notes. And the creativity in music is is being able to manipulate those seven notes, whether it's horizontally, like creating a catchy melody that we want to get stuck in people's heads or sounds delightful in some way, or vertically, which is creating different triad or chord sounds, as we're going to get into more and more as we go. And marrying those two things together, a perfect catchy melody intertwined with the correct chords or married with the correct chords, that's where the magic happens in music, in my opinion. And so again, seven measly notes coming from a scale pattern creates everything in what we call a key. So for now on, going forward, when you hear things like the key of C major, the key of G minor, the key of B flat major. You will now be able to put together several things. So it starts with that root note, if you remember. That gives the scale its name. So let's go back to C major. A C major scale starts on root note C. And then we know the scale is formed by using the whole step half step pattern that will give us the rest of our notes in our scale. And then we know that triads are formed by the skipping principle, where you're skipping every other note and creating a three note harmony called a triad. And a triad is the smallest chord that you can have in a key. But when we talk about chords, you can continue just to build off of the triad. and stack more notes four notes five notes six seven and even more to create really complex and lush chords and harmonies within a key so this next Audio example is going to be putting it all together. Now that we know what a key is, now that we know what triads are, and now that we know that chords are based on triads and built off of them, let's play all the chords on a guitar in a key. So again, I'm using key of C as my model, as my template. So we're going to go with that. The root triad in the key is C major. And if we double and triple those notes we get a bigger C major chord. The second triad is D minor. And if we double and triple those we get a big D minor. Your third chord is going to be E minor or an E minor triad. And then we double and triple those. Fourth chord is an F major. We double and triple those Your fifth chord is a G major Double and triple those Sixth chord is an A minor Double and triple those And your last chord is a B diminished Double and triple those And then you're back to the root C major again. So an example chord progression in the key of C might sound like this. Some of you are asking right now, well, how do we know which ones come out major, come out minor, or diminished? Well, all of that is going to be explained in a future episode about chords and chord progressions, and we will get there very soon. So let's recap episode three. We talked about triads and chords. We talked about how there are seven triads that can be built off of the seven scale degrees of a scale. We talked about how those are formed using the skipping principle of triads, where you skip to every other note to form your triads. We talked about what scale degrees are, just the numbers that number each note in the scale, as well as talking about what a root note is. Next episode, we're going to talk more about chords and chord progressions. We're going to talk about extended harmony. like 7th chords, 9th chords, suspension chords, add chords, and a lot of stuff involved with that. We're going to talk about the four different types of triads, major, minor, augmented, and diminished. And we're going to do a comparison of those. So do stay tuned, because I look forward to Continuing this music theory exploration with all of you.