What Are Triad Chords?
Here is a brief introduction. A harmonic triad is a combination of three notes (root, third and fifth) stacked vertically in thirds.
After having read all that follows, you should be able to spell the four qualities of triads and play them in root positions and inversions whatever the key.
There are four main types of triads, you'll find them below.
Difference Between Triad and Dyad
A dyad is made of two notes whereas a triad is built with three notes.
Major Triads
Major triads are built by stacking three notes in thirds.
You can also think of them as a one major third and one minor third stacked on each other.
Interval pattern is R - 3 - 5. C major triad is represented below.
Minor Triads
Minor triads are made up of two thirds, one major third and one minor third.
Interval pattern is R - b3 - 5. You can see a D minor triad below.
Diminished Triads
Diminished triads are made up with a root (1), a minor third (b3) and a diminished fifth (b5).
As you can see with D diminished below, they are built by stacking two minor thirds
Augmented Triads
An augmented triad is built with two major thirds stacked. The interval pattern is 1 - 3 - #5.
As its name implies it contains an augmented fifth. C augmented is shown below.
Triads Within the Major Scale
One of the fundamental theoretical elements is to know how to harmonize the major scale in thirds in order to obtain seven triads built on each degree.
By stacking thirds on each interval of a major scale, you get three major triads (degrees I, IV and V), three minor triads (degrees II, III and VI) and a diminished triad on the VII degree.
| Degrees | I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII |
| C major scale | C | D | E | F | G | A | B |
| Triads | C | Dm | Em | F | G | Am | Bdim |
There is no augmented triad in the harmonization of the major scale. So, they will not be used in the exercises below.
Please note that augmented triads can be found on the harmonized degree III of the harmonic minor scale, on the sixth degree of the harmonic major scale and on the third degree of the melodic minor scale.
Close Triads and Inversions
Before learning how to use triads over a II V I sequence, here are some triad guitar shapes that will serve as the basis for the exercises below (except augmented forms).
All the triads below are closed voiced, meaning that all the notes are placed as close together as possible, they are all included in one octave.
Each triad produces two inversions with third or fifth in the bass. Each neck diagram provides three possibilities to play a triad.
Open Triads (aka Spread Triads) and Inversions
To build an open triad, just take the middle note of an open triad (the 3rd) and move it an octave higher. Open triads are also called "spread triads".
They can be very useful for composition or arrangement and also very helpful to explore the guitar neck more in-depth.
As shown below, each triad generates three open shapes including a root voicing and two inverted voicings.
Concerning the diagrams below, root voicings are represented in blue, 1st inversions are in red and 2nd inversions are in green.
Please note that some of the shapes are a little bit stretchy, don't hesitate to experiment your own positions.
Major Triad - Open Voicings
| Root voicing (root in the bass) | R | 5 | 3 |
| 1st inversion (third in the bass) | 3 | R | 5 |
| 2nd inversion (fifth in the bass) | 5 | 3 | R |
Minor Triad - Open Voicings
| Root voicing (root in the bass) | R | 5 | b3 |
| 1st inversion (minor third in the bass) | b3 | R | 5 |
| 2nd inversion (fifth in the bass) | 5 | b3 | R |
Diminished Triad - Open Voicings
| Root voicing (root in the bass) | R | b5 | b3 |
| 1st inversion (minor third in the bass) | b3 | R | b5 |
| 2nd inversion (dim. 5th in the bass) | b5 | b3 | R |
Augmented Triad - Open Voicings
| Root voicing (root in the bass) | R | #5 | 3 |
| 1st inversion (third in the bass) | 3 | R | #5 |
| 2nd inversion (augmented fifth in the bass) | #5 | 3 | R |
Triads Within Seventh Chords
Now let's get to the essential point of this lesson : How to extract triads from seventh chords in order to use them over a common progression used in jazz, the II V I sequence.
The first reflex would be to take the first three notes of each tetrad chords which, are obviously triads.
Remember that tetrad chords are actually triads with an additional note that can be a minor seventh (b7) or a major seventh (7). But, playing these triads don't have much interest.
In order to get more intersting colors, we'll take three seventh chords (minor 7, major 7 and dominant 7) representing the degrees II, V and I of the sequence we need and extract the triads starting on the third of each 7th chord. This is what we call a "diatonic substitution".
When taking the three highest notes of a minor seventh chord we obtain a major triad.
When taking the three highest notes of a dominant seventh chord we get a diminished triad.
When taking the three highest notes of a major seventh chord we get a minor triad.
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Comments
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Thank you for this great overview :)
You're welcome -
Thank you for this very interesting information about the triads. It was, for me, a review and an update.
I guess when you wrote: "Please note that augmented triads can be found ... on the sixth degree of the harmonic MAJOR scale ..." You meant to write: "Please note that augmented triads can be found ... on the sixth degree of the harmonic MINOR scale ... "?
Looking forward to reading your other articles.
The sixth degree of the harmonic major scale is augmented whereas the sixth degree of the harmonic minor scale is major. -
thanks for the instruction
Thanks for the comment ;) -
Thank you
You're welcome ;)
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