[BLANK_AUDIO] >> In lecture one we saw that it's common to build triads. Just to remind you what a triad is, it's three notes played together. It's the simplest type of chord. >> So if we take any note. What we're going to do in order to build a triad is, play a note, then miss a note, then play a note, then miss a note. So if we think of a chord built on F, the lowest space on the stave, we're going to play the F, we're going to miss the line G, play an A, miss the line B, and play the note C. So we get our three note chord, using every other note. >> And when we play the notes stacked up like this. [SOUND] It's the bottom note, it's the first notes there that is the one that sort of sticks out to our ears, generally. [SOUND] here's another triad. And let's hear another one, as well. [SOUND] Okay now let's just to demonstrate how we can pick out the bottom note from the triad. Zack I am going to play some chords in a row and when I finish the final triad I'd just like you to hum for me, sing the, the, the note that stands out to you, perceptually. >> Okay. >> 'Kay. [MUSIC] >> La. >> Okay. >> Zack's singing the key note. In this case it was G, he was singing the tonic key note G. Let's try another one. [MUSIC] >> La. >> He's singing the key note B. >> So although there were multiple notes being played, actually when we hear the triad, it's still the lowest note, it's the tonic that is the most important one perceptually. >> So, let's just think of another example here, we've got an A-minor chord, A, C and the E. Now, because the notes repeat across the octave and that keeps going on and on, we could repeat as many of the A and the Cs and the Es as we like, and put them all into, into some sort of voicing on any instrument. So we could have something like this. [MUSIC] >> La. >> There we go, so the note adds of all those repetitions and the various voices that we're using. It's the, the bottom note of the triad that should stand out the most. >> So, though Nickie played lots of As, and lots of Cs, and lots of Es, the important thing was that perceptually, the triad was the root of the triad was the most important. It was the strongest, and that's what allowed me to sing the note A above the others. >> And that, and that's how we identify that chord as being an A triad. [BLANK_AUDIO] So, you'll remember from lectures one and two, that triads don't just have an identity. They don't just have a note name that identifies them. They've also got a kind of flavor or characteristic. And we've already heard, just now, two different types of characteristic. We've heard minor triads. [MUSIC] And we've just heard major triads. [MUSIC] So just a reminder about what, what's quite going on there. It, it's, it's something you've talked about already but it's also good to think of it in different ways. With that triad, we've got the interval of a perfect fifth. [MUSIC] On the outside, from the top to the bottom, or from the bottom to the top. And then in the middle, we can carve up that pitch space, so that it makes- [MUSIC] A major sound. [MUSIC] Or a minor sound. >> So the important bit about that chord, and the thing that actually gives it it's major sound or its minor sound. Is the third. So if we think [SOUND] about the first degree and the fifth degree of the triad we have got seven semitones between there and that's like we said what we call a perfect fifth. But importantly in distinguishing major and minor is actually the third that we want to look at. So, if between the root [SOUND] of the triad and the third. We have three semitones. We call this a minor third, so a triad with a perfect fifth [SOUND] and a minor third is described as a minor triad. If we had four semitones [SOUND] between the root and the third, we get a major third, and a triad with a major third and a perfect fifth, [SOUND] is a major triad. >> So, so just summing up. When we have triads, we can identify them, even though they're three notes, by one single note name, which is the root note. And we can also identify them as having a particular flavor or character, either major or minor, or diminished, or augmented. And we'll talk about those more a bit later. [BLANK_AUDIO] >> So, a little aside on triads before we move on. Some people might be watching these videos wondering why we've always had this group of notes in the same order, appearing one, three, five. What happens if we have a different order? >> That order that we've been using, one three five, is what's known as root position. Where the tonic note, the root occurs in the lowest position of the chord, now of course you can move around and do them in in other positions as well, so. [MUSIC] Here we've got one three five, we course we could have three five one, or we could have five one three. Now, the interesting thing perceptually about rearranging that order, is that the note that we're calling the root note is still the one that, that you use to identify the chord. So even when you've switched it round, that note, because of the relationships between the pitches when you play them together, that note is still identifiable as the root of the chord. >> So when we're talking about these triads being rearranged to use a music theory term, we're actually talking about 'inversions' - The notes have been inverted. We'll talk more about that in the next lecture, but we've also put some supplementary material up on this week's webpage, just so you can have a read in to, and, and become more familiar with it. From now, in this lecture however we're always going to keep everything in root position, just because it makes it really easy to talk about the first, the third and the fifth, and know where everything is. [BLANK_AUDIO]
