Introducing Triads

You can probably figure out that the term "Triad" is referring to something about the number 3. In this case, the term refers to the chords we get when we stack 3 notes by the intervals of a third.

You may notice that each of these triads is identified with a Roman Numeral. Roman Numerals are useful in music because they not only count but they assign quality based on their case. Upper case Roman numerals indicate a Major (or Augmented +) triad, whereas lower case Roman Numerals indicate minor (or diminished o) triads.

Triads come in 4 flavors: Major, minor, Augmented and diminished. Each has a unique sound and a unique formula for their construction.

Check out the tutorial at Musictheory.net for more background on triad construction.

The tutorial offers the option of counting out the intervals of the triad on the keyboard. We will also discuss using our understanding of key signatures to get the same results.

Working with Triads- Activity