Triads and Inversions
Triads are the simplest form of chords and consists of three notes. Chords require at least three (3) different tones in their structure. A three-tone chord is a triad. Chords may contain as few as three tones and as many as seven or more.
There are four types of triads :
- Major Triad (1, 3, 5)
- Minor Triad (1, b3, 5)
- Diminished Triad (1, b3, b5)
- Augmented Triad ( 1, 3, #5)
As you can see above the quality of the chord can be defined by the first interval.
Or
Major Triad
|
Minor Triad
|
Diminished Triad
|
Augmented Triad
|
| M3 + m3 |
m3 + M3 |
m3 + m3 |
M3 + M3 |
| C-E E-G |
C-Eb Eb-G |
C-Eb Eb-Gb |
C-E E-G# |
I hope that taking a look at The Harmonization of Major Scale will help us understanding the triads . Below you can see the C major scale consist of major, minor and diminished triads.
This is the basic; you can play chords for a scale just using triads or 7th chords. I hope you get "triads chord relation" so far.
Triad Inversions
Triads have three inversions.
You can see these three inversions for a the major triad below:
The vocing for the root position is 1 3 5 and this is the basic triad for a major triad. The first inversion has a voicing of 3 5 1 and the second inversion has a vocing of 5 1 3.
The inversions of the other triads are like as follows:
|
Root Position
|
1st Inversion
|
2nd inversion
|
| Maj |
Min |
Aug |
Dim |
Maj |
Min |
Aug |
Dim |
Maj |
Min |
Aug |
Dim |
| G |
G |
G# |
Gb |
C |
C |
C |
C |
E |
Eb |
E |
Eb |
| E |
Eb |
E |
Eb |
G |
G |
G# |
Gb |
C |
C |
C |
C |
| C |
C |
C |
C |
E |
Eb |
E |
Eb |
G |
G |
G# |
Gb |
Now, learn all C major, C minor, C augmented, and C diminished triads, all inversions and triads chord relation!
Please also try to remember triad patterns on your guitar keyboard. So that you can easily analyze a chord while playing on your guitar.
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