Triads – Bass Clef
Much of Western music (most?) is built on the backbone of chord progressions. A chord is three or more different notes played simultaneously. Most chords in Western music are based on Tertian Harmony or harmony based on thirds.
If you play the notes of a chord one note at a time, it’s called an arpeggio. Even polyphonic bass instruments spend most of their time playing these chords as “broken” chords.
We will include examples of both arpeggios and chords.
Traids are the smallest of the true chords.
Again, using the Major Scale as our reference, we can build the Major Triad from its Root.
Taking the Root, 3rd, and 5th degrees of the Major Scale yields the Major Triad.
The result is a m3 interval stacked on top of a M3 interval, with the Root to the 5th creating a Perfect 5th interval.
If we take the Major Chord and lower the 3rd degree by a half step, we get the Minor Chord
The Minor Chord is composed of the Root, b3, and 5th.
The result is a M3 interval stacked on top of a m3 interval, with the Root to the 5th creating a Perfect 5th interval.