Music Theory 2 - Triads

In this article im gonna talk about triads. Im gonna try to keep it as easy and understandable as possible.

Prerequisite: U mustve gone through Music Theory 1-Intervals, and must have an excellent understanding of Major,Minor,Augmented and Diminished Intervals.
Heres some stuff u test u:
Minor 2nd from ab
Major 7th from f#
Perfect 4th of e
Perfect 5th of g
augmented second from C
Augmented fourth from f
Diminished 4th from F

Answers:
bbb,e#,a,d,d#,b,bbb

...K ..if u got those then
Lets continue

Triads: A group of 3 notes separated in a certain intervallic fashion .
Ill be discussing the following types of triads:
Major
Minor
Augmented
Diminished

Major:
The Major triad is derived from the folowing notes:
The Root, The Major 3rd, The perfect 5th
i.e. 1,M3,P5
Eg. C major
Root-C
Major 3rd-E( remember..2 full steps away from the root C)
P5-G(3 full steps and a half step away from the root C)

Thus the Major triad for C consistes of the notes C,E,G
Thus u can find the Major triad for any root.

Minor:
The Minor Triad is derived from :
The Root,The Minor 3rd and the Perfect 5th
Eg. C major
Root-C
Minor 3rd- Minor 3rd is half a step below the major 3rd thus Eb
P5-G
Thus C,Eb,G constitue the minor triad , i.e. Cminor
Similarly u can find the minor triad for any root.

The Dimisnished Triad
The Diminished Triad is derived from
The Root, Minor 3rd, Diminished 5th
Eg. C major
Root- u guess
Minor 3rd- Eb
Diminished 5th- Gb
Thus Cdiminished or Cdim would be- C Eb Gb

and finally...
The Augmented Triad
The Augmented is derived from:
Root,Major 3rd and Augmented 5th
Eg. C major
Root- C(now this is getting boring )
Major 3rd-E
Augmented 5th-G#
Thus the C Augmented triad CAug will consist of the notes C E G#

Note: say u wanna know the major triad to say Cb, then all u gotta do is to write the major triad of C- C E G and add flats to it. Thus Cb maj- Cb Eb Gb.

..phew, i know that was a whole lotta stuff to digest. Take a break, have a beer , watch paris hilton .

ok..now that uve taken a deserved break its time to test ur understanding.
So here we go
write the Major Minor Augmented and Diminished triads in the key of C,G,D,A,E,B,F.
Yeah, i know thats easy..took me only 2 seconds .. jk.
Take ur time. And finally compare ur answers with mine..do tell me if ive made a mistake.
Finally, keep the copy of triads with u , it'll help u later.

I hope this thread was usefull, if so shower reps and more importantly listen to the mp3's ive posted in the indian artistes section (the strange beautiful trippy music thread) .
Ill be follwing up on this post with a post on inversions, sus chords and 7th chords.
Peace


Answers:

Major Minor Diminished Augmented
C c e g c eb g c eb gb c e g#

G g b d g bb d g bb db g b d#

D d f# a d f a d f ab d f# a#

A a c# e a c e a c eb a c# e#

E e g# b e g b e g bb e g# b#

B b d# f# b d f# b d f b d# f##

F f a c f ab c f ab cb f a c#

hey man excellent post...thanks a lot....i gotta write all this stuff down so i can refer to it again....im sure the practicality of this lesson will be found later...cant wait

hey liquid, thanx for the encouragement.

nie work dennis .. alrdy gav u reps in ur prev lessons.. so cant giv nymore now

good stuff dennis, nice 'n easy way of explaining this (some folks might be thinking this is easy !! , but trust me, it is "relatively" easy - if u pick up some music thoery books, they'll kill u before getting to what dennis put up here).

Just one point to note (probably obvious, but for ppl who may not know, I'll note it anyway) - triads are the basic form of harmony in western music - they form chords. A 2 note "chord" (like the power chord) is not "really" a chord. So u start with triads and within triads. start with a major triad, change the notes (flat or sharp them, not the root though !) and get minor, dim and aug triads.

dennis - look fwd to the info on extended chords (beyond triads).

@subhro- if u were a girl i wudve kissed u
@hs thanx, i tried to keep is short and simple but it still takes some time to get a stronghold on this thing. I hope people work through the last exercise, that'll cement the thing in your head(personal experience) Yeah, Ill be posting the next lesson in a few days time.

very good work on the theory, dennis. i really dig it.

Originally Posted by dennis

@subhro- if u were a girl i wudve kissed u

and if u wud hav been 1.. i wud hav kissd u back
sry offtopic.. nyways nice post 1c agn.

Excellent post again, Dennis. !!!

Keep it up.

lol..can u go further on this whole harmoney thing and western music stuff...

Man, thanks again, great post!

Keep it up!

Gud Post Dude..
I have read your earlier thread also on Music Interval.
Thanx for shairing the knowledge!!
Just one word for u!!
You ....



Keep Doing Gud Work!!