Taken together, the combination of the 3rd and 5th note intervals will define the complete triad quality name. To decide the name the chord quality, each step below will use note intervals to calculate how many half-tones / semitones / piano keys between the root and the 3rd (and 5th). Should each triad that we build be called major, minor, augmented, or diminished ? Every triad chord must have one of these quality names. This pattern is repeated for all 7 notes in the scale, resulting in 7 triad chords.Īlthough the above method identifies each triads notes from the scale used - it does not identify the complete chord name including its quality.

the 1st, 3rd and 5th positions relative to that 2nd root note. The second triad below will repeat this, but this time starting on the 2nd note, so its notes will be C, Eb and G - ie. Triad chords are built using the 1st, 3rdand 5th notes of the scale, so the first triad below will constructed a chord using notes Bb, D and F. The triad chord will be built using only the notes of the scale we are interested in.

Starting from the 1st scale note, each lesson step below will take each note in turn and construct a triad chord using that note as the root / starting note of that chord.

The piano keyboard below contains the notes of the Bb major scale. This step shows the scale note names that will be used to construct all triad chords that harmonize with those scale notes.

B flat major scale