Music Theory Lesson 2 How Chords Are Constructed 101 - Triads, Inversions

hi welcome out to lesson 2 in the music
theory course that I've been putting
together today we're quite simply going
to be talking about different kinds of
chords different kinds of triads that's
a kind of chord which I'll explain a
little bit and that's pretty much it so
I hope you enjoy and I'll see you in a
minute okay so now time to talk about
different kinds of chords there are many
different kinds of chords but one type
that I want you to be familiar with in
the beginning is known as the triad
so a triad is made up of three notes
kind of like a triceratops has three
horns anything with tri triangle has
three of something so let's play a C
triad shall we pretty easy so we're
going to find C and then we're going to
skip a white note and play and then
we're going to skip another note and
we're going to play G so you're playing
every other white note at least in this
case with with C and I'll explain here
in a minute so this is actually what's
known as the C major triad and with
triads there's actually many different
kinds there's a major triad a minor
triad
a diminished triad and an Augmented
triad so for now we're going to talk
about major minor so here we have major
now I want you to actually let me
explain this so every triad has what's
called a root which is the base note
there or the the most bottom note in
this case then we have the third and we
have the v so v it also called the root
the first because it's the first here at
the bottom the root can be on top or in
the middle and I'll explain that in a
little bit but remember it is root third
and that's a seat right now in a major
triad let's count the distance between
the first and the third and a major
triad there's one two three four there
are four half steps between the root or
first and the third in a minor triad
there are only three half steps between
the first and the third
so one two three
also hmm actually let's so let me
explain it this way so we have AC major
triad the only difference between a
major tried and a minor triad is that
middle note there that middle note of
the third will tell you whether it's
major minor so if you have a major chord
and you want to get two minor quickly
without counting the half steps in
between you just lower that third by a
half step down that way and that will
decrease the amount of half steps
between the first and the third from
four to three have it seeming a triad C
minor triad and now if you want to get
to diminished first you want to get into
minor so here we're already in minor and
you just want to lower your fifth by
another half step there we go so that is
diminished another thing on a point out
is that major chords are nice and happy
minor chords have a sad feel to them and
diminish chords have a very tense
so happy sad and tense now we'll talk
about inversions so we have AC major
triad and to invert it to put it what's
called first inversion we take the root
note and we move it to the top so we
take the root note or the bottom note
excuse me we're taking the bottom note
and we're moving it to the top so we're
taking C from the bottom and putting it
on top so we have a first inversion C
major chord or C major triad so like I
explained before the root of the chord
isn't always at the bottom when you're
in an inversion if you're in an
inversion the the root of the chord can
be on top or it can be in the middle as
well and I'll explain that in a second
so let's put this first inversion triad
into a second version triad well we're
going to take our a here's our bottom
note and we're going to move it to the
top right there so now we have AC major
chord in second inversion now let's put
it in third inversion shall we well
let's take this G move it up here well
there is no third inversion with a triad
chord because when you put it in third
inversion you're back to a root position
with C at the bottom in the middle and G
up top
now let's play another let's play ad
major chord shall we do major triad so
let's let's figure this out and you can
follow along with me if you'd like so
you're going to go to the chord will be
D and then to mate remember to make it a
major chord the distance between the
first and the third has to be four half
steps so you take your root note and you
hold it down and then you count one two
three four four half steps there you go
and then the fifth and a major chord is
one two three half steps away from the
third like that now let's make this D
major chord in D minor chord so think
about what we need to do to do that so
we're going to take our third now we're
going to lower it a half step got a D
minor chord what about a D diminished
chord what are we going to do with that
think about it for a minute so we're
going to take the fifth this time and we
are going to lower it a half step
very tense sound
so say you have a major chord let's go
back to the major part of it I mean you
want to go to diminished well if you're
not in mine are already you have to
lower the third and the fifth
like so but if in your but if you're in
mind already
you only need to lower the fifth because
the third is already lowered for you
like so and you can I really highly
suggest you get on your own keyboard and
you play around playing major chords on
different kinds of notes knowing that
the distance between the first and third
for a major chord should be four half
steps for minor chord it should be only
three uh and then with a diminished you
want take a major chord and lower the
third and the fifth now I should
probably mention on how to figure out
the fifth the fifth is always going to
be so let's take our C major chord the
fifth is going to be let's count them
one two three four five six seven let me
double check one two three four five six
seven there's going to be seven half
steps between the first and the fifth so
remember major chord four half steps
between the first and third and seven
half steps between the first and the
fifth same thing goes with minor there
are seven half being the first in the
fifth
but remember there's only three half
steps between the first and the third
with a diminished chord how many half
steps are going to be between the first
and the fifth well let's take a look
here here's our major chord here's our
minor chord here's our diminish
remembering that we lower the fifth by
half step to get into diminished form E
minor to diminished we can deduct that
there are only going to be six half
steps between the first and the fifth so
let's count them let's leave the third
out for a second so one two three four
five six so there you have it so that's
a general way of how to figure out
different major and minor chords let's
do one last one to wrap it up to make
sure we got all the concepts correctly
so let's play an F major chord so I'm
just going to give you a second to kind
of try to figure that out on your own
feel free to pause the video if you need
more time so I'll get started here we
have our first so any time we're trying
to find a specific chord like let's say
we have F chord the first note you want
to play is F will be the bottom of the
core at leastwe if you're a group
position and then let's say we have an F
major so we want our third so where's
our third going to be how many half
steps away was that again hopefully you
said four-four there you go and how many
half steps between the first and the
fifth remember that it's seven so right
there so there you have it in F major
chord now how do we make that an F minor
chord if we have the major chord already
well we lower the third and then we have
an F minor chord and then an F
diminished chord you're going to lower
your fifth as well so there you go so
like I said I highly recommend you go on
your own keyboard and you play around
with different kinds of chords starting
on different notes try starting on
different black-white key notes and try
starting on different black key notes
that will give you a lot of experience
on how to play these different kinds of
chords remember if you're playing you're
trying to play in
major chord and it sounds sad then
you're you don't have it quite right
because if it sounds sad then it's a
minor chord so feel free to rewind any
part of this video or leave me any
comments or questions about how to make
triads and we'll go from there
so anyway there you have it triads at
the keyboard so remember we talked about
different kinds of chords diminisher
before going to this lesson I highly
suggest you re watch that part and make
sure you have that hundred-percent
because we're going to move kind of fast
here so say we have a major chord like
so so a song generally won't have a
single chord the whole song if it did it
would sound kind of boring so what we
have instead is what's called a chord
progression so all you really need to
know about a chord progression is that
it's a set of chords that makes up a
song so this is a very common chord
progression we have AC major chord an F
major chord and a G major chord then we
go back to C that's a very common chord
progression in music so again a chord
progression is just a progression of
chords very simple so so why is G back
to see how can we explain that and how
can we move that to different keys
because if we play C F G that only works
for the key of C that chord progression
so let me put it this way
so first we're going to play what's
called a first chord it's based off the
first note of the C major scale I
suggest you look at the C major scale
video as well before watching this one
so we're going to take the first note of
C major scale and build a major chord
and then we're gonna take the 4th note
of the scale 1 2 3 4 now we're going to
build a meter and then we're going to
take the 5th note of a the scale the
major scale
we're gonna build a major chord on and
then we're going to go back to the first
so the most major the most common chord
progression in music is for a 1 chord a
forward a5 chord back to the wall
so one five and you can build a cord on
any note of a major or minor scale so
let's take that chord progression to the
next next note over so let's say we have
a D we're going to have the one four
five chord progression in D well first
we need to build a major triad on D so
we have the first or the root our third
remember four major is going to be four
half steps away from the root third is
four half steps away now we have the
fifth which is seven half steps away
from the root
so here we go this is your board
and then our descale will go over the D
scale more in depth later so if you get
a little lost here don't worry just
remember the most important thing is
that the chord progression is 1 and then
we're going to go to the chord that's on
the 4th note of the scale so D scale
goes like this 1 2 3 4 this is our 4th
chord and our 5th chord here and back to
1 and by the way at least at this point
on these are all going to be major
chords we will play around minor chords
and minor scales later on but basically
what I wanted to get out of this video
is that the most common chord
progression is 1 4 5 1 and then a chord
progression is simply a progression of
chords that kind of gives direction to a
song ok so that concludes lesson 2 in
the music theory course today we talked
about different kinds of chords we
talked about triads and that there are
quite a few different kinds of triads
there's a major triad a minor triad and
a diminished triad remember that in a
major triad the distance in half steps
between the first and the third is 4 4
half steps and the distance between the
first and the fifth is 7 half steps with
a minor chord distance between the first
and the third is only three half steps
but the distance between the first and
the fifth is still 7 with a diminished
chord the distance between the first and
the third is 3 and this is between the
first and the fifth is only 6 because
we're lowering both the third and the
fifth I'm only six half steps between
the first and the fifth we also briefly
talked about inversions we'll probably
talk more about this later and I'll
probably throw this material into
another lesson to kinda make it concrete
but I suggest you look over this video
quite a few times make sure you got the
idea like any of the other videos I do
but anyway if you have any comments or
questions let me know and I'll talk
through with hopefully I can help you
out like I said I can't get to everybody
I'll try my best if I can point you in
the right direction I'll do that but if
I can write something out real quick I
can do as well kind of busy guy right
now and trying to put out more and more
of these videos all the time I know that
might not work out every week so bear
with me but anyway I hope you enjoyed
the second lesson and I'll see you guys
and girls next time