Chords

Now that you have a good understanding about intervals, we are going to take it a step forward and head into chords.  A chord is: 
  • combination of  three or more musical tones sounded simultaneously. 

We will start with three note chords, which are also referred to as triads.  To build a triad, we are going to stack thirds.
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The most basic triad is comprised of stacking 2 thirds on top of each other.

Parts of a Triad

We are going to label each part of the a triad.  The bottom of the triad, will be called the Root of the chord.  The root of a chord is what we will name the chord after, for example G major.  We will refer to the other two notes by their intervalic relationship to the root: the 3rd and the 5th.
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The name of this chord is C major (named after the root of the chord, C)

Chord Qualities

There are 4 types of chord qualities we will deal with for now.  They are: major, minor, diminished, and augmented.  We can determine the quality of the chord by examining the quality of intervals within the chord (the quality of the 3rd compared to the root, and the 5th compared to the root)
  • Major: Major 3rd + a perfect 5th
  • Minor: minor 3rd + a perfect 5th
  • diminished: minor 3rd + a diminished 5th
  • Augmented: major 3rd + an augmented 5th
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Watch the first 2:30 of this video to hear the different chords played.

To practice labeling chords, download the following worksheet.  

Chord Inversions >>>