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Triads
The three elements of traditional music are melody, rhythm and harmony. The harmonic element in most of the music we hear and play is based upon three-note chords called triads. Because of the important role harmony plays in most music, knowledge of triads and awareness of their sounds are essential for fluent reading, good intonation and sensitive listening. Triads are written by combining various intervals, so thorough command of interval terminology is vital.
Remember that a chord is three or more tones sounding simultaneously.
It's so important to know how to play:
1. All 12 major chords.
2. All 12 minor chords.
3. All 12 augmented chords.
4. All 12 diminished chords.
That makes a total of 48 chords to learn on the piano and if you invert (turn upside down) each chord 3 times, now you have a grand total of 144 sounding chords to play. I've talked about chord inversions before and you can view the post here.
By augmented, I mean to make the chord larger and by diminished, let's make the chord smaller. Have a look at a former post, augmented-and-diminished-chords.
For example:
C Major Triad = CEG
C Minor Triad = CEbG
C Diminished Triad = CEbGb
C Augmented Triad = CEG#
Christmas Song: Joy To The World
The history of the song can be found, here. Maybe try playing this famous Christmas Carol in a few of the major keys for piano practice.
1. Key of C
C Dm C G7 C
Joy to the world! The Lord is come;
F G C
Let earth receive her King.
C
Let every heart prepare Him room,
C
And heav'n and nature sing,
G7
And heav'n and nature sing,
C F C Dm C G7 C
And heav'n and heav'n and nature sing.
Joy to the world! The Lord is come;
F G C
Let earth receive her King.
C
Let every heart prepare Him room,
C
And heav'n and nature sing,
G7
And heav'n and nature sing,
C F C Dm C G7 C
And heav'n and heav'n and nature sing.
2. Key of D
Joy to the world! [D] The Lord is come! [Em D A7 D] Let earth receive her King! [G A D] Let every heart prepare Him room, [D G D D G D] And heav'n and nature sing, [D] and heav'n and nature sing, [A A7] and heav'n and heav'n [D G D] and nature sing!
3. Key of E
E A E
Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
A B E
Let earth receive her King;
E E E
Let every heart prepare Him room,
E E
And Heaven and nature sing,
B B
And Heaven and nature sing,
E A E B E
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.
4. Key of F
F Bb F Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Bb C F Let earth receive her King; F F F Let every heart prepare Him room, F F And Heaven and nature sing, C C And Heaven and nature sing, F Bb F C F And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.
5. Key of G
G C G Joy to the world, the Lord is come! C D G Let earth receive her King; G G G Let every heart prepare Him room, G G And Heaven and nature sing, D D And Heaven and nature sing, G C G D G And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.6. Key of A
A D A Joy to the world, the Lord is come! D E A Let earth receive her King; A A A Let every heart prepare Him room, A A And Heaven and nature sing, E E And Heaven and nature sing, A D A E A And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.
7. Key of B
B E B Joy to the world, the Lord is come! E F B Let earth receive her King; B B B Let every heart prepare Him room, B B And Heaven and nature sing, F F And Heaven and nature sing, B E B F B And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.
Listen to Joy to The World Tracks in Bb, Db, Eb, and Gb at www.rhapsody.com
If you haven't seen this post on the chord dictionary, be sure and visit piano chords. Latinpianist provides a great study on basic chords for beginners.
Be sure and check out my article on Constructing Simple Chords.
I noticed some of you have signed up for the GospelKeys Master Class featuring Michael Bereal. That's so cool... thanks!
Have a wonderful Christmas season!
"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you." B.B.King
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