Primary and Secondary Triads Figured Bass

 A triad can be built on each note of the scale.

When building triads on scale tones, all of the sharps or flats that are in the key being used must be added to the chords which have those notes.

Example: D Major Scale has F# and C#. When writing the triads of D Major, every time an F or C appears in a chord, a sharp must be added to it. (See example below.)

Triads of the scale are numbered using Roman Numerals. Upper case Roman Numerals are used for Major triads, lower case Roman numerals are used for minor triads, upper case Roman Numerals with "+" are used for Augmented triads, and lower case Roman Numerals with "o" are used for diminished triads. These are called the FIGURED BASS SYMBOLS.

Db Eb Gb Ab Bb C D E F G A B C

Db Eb Gb Ab Bb C D E F G A B C

I (Major) = DF#A                                ii (minor) = EGB

Db Eb Gb Ab Bb C D E F G A B C

Db Eb Gb Ab Bb C D E F G A B C

Db Eb Gb Ab Bb C D E F G A B C

 iii (minor) = F#AC#                             IV (Major) = GBD

Db Eb Gb Ab Bb C D E F G A B C

Db Eb Gb Ab Bb C D E F G A B C

Db Eb Gb Ab Bb C D E F G A B C

V (Major) = AC#E                                 vi (minor) = BDF#

Db Eb Gb Ab Bb C D E F G A B C

Db Eb Gb Ab Bb C D E F G A B C

 viio (diminished) C#EG                            I (Major) = DF#A

 All of the above charts are for the...
PRIMARY and SECONDARY TRIADS IN THE KEY OF D MAJOR

I, IV and V are the PRIMARY TRIADS. In Major keys, these three triads are Major and are the most commonly used chords for harmonizing tonal melodies. The chords are labelled with upper case Roman Numerals.

ii, iii, vi and viio are the SECONDARY TRIADS. In Major keys, iii, and vi are minor and viio is diminished. The chords are labelled with lower case Roman Numerals, and the viio chord has a small circle beside the Roman Numeral.

The qualities of the triads in minor keys are different from those for Major keys. When using harmonic minor, the triads have the following qualities:

Db Eb Gb Ab Bb C D E F G A B C

Db Eb Gb Ab Bb C D E F G A B C

i (minor) = DFA                               iio (diminished) = EGBb

Db Eb Gb Ab Bb C D E F G A B C

Db Eb Gb Ab Bb C D E F G A B C

Db Eb Gb Ab Bb C D E F G A B C

III+ (Augmented = FAC#                  iv (minor) = GBbD

Db Eb Gb Ab Bb C D E F G A B C

Db Eb Gb Ab Bb C D E F G A B C

Db Eb Gb Ab Bb C D E F G A B C

V (Major) = AC#E                     VI (Major) = BbDF

Db Eb Gb Ab Bb C D E F G A B C

Db Eb Gb Ab Bb C D E F G A B C

viio (diminished) = C#EG                  i (minor) = DFA

The above charts are for....
PRIMARY and SECONDARY TRIADS in the KEY of D MINOR

Jermaine Griggs has been talking about learning patterns in piano playing. So let's talk about it soon.

You may be interested in Gospel Keys 101

If you enjoyed this blog post, please consider following on Bloglovin'
Keep in touch with me on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube and Pinterest, too!


 "The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you." B.B.King