Back to: Basic Jazz Piano
Now you know how to find major and minor triads Andy sets you a challenge! Can you use what you’ve learned about counting semitones to find the major and minor triads in all 12 keys?
Theory Tips - Intervals As Andy said in the first lesson on major triads, the notes of a triad are the root, third, and fifth notes of the scale. The distance between notes is known as an interval. And in these triads the top and bottom notes always have an interval of a perfect 5th. It is the middle note that changes between major and minor triads. The interval between the root and the middle note can be either a major 3rd (in major triads), which is 4 semitones higher than the root. Or it can be an interval of a minor 3rd (in minor triads), which is 3 semitones higher than the root.
Improvisation Task
As you get familiar with how to find some chords you can start to use them to “improvise” – make up music as you go along.
Create a chord sequence
Even with just a handful of chords you can make some interesting music by putting different chords together into a chord sequence. A chord sequence is just a list of chords, and which order they are in. Here’s how you can do it:
- choose a few major or minor chords – 4 of them if you can. If you’re just beginning, you can keep it simple by choosing chords that just have white notes.
- Write down the names of your 4 chords. For example, with white note chords you might choose Am, C, Dm, and G.
- Once you’ve chosen your chords, try playing them in different orders. Change the order (or the chords) if you want to, until you have a chord sequence you like.
Improvising with your chord sequence
One simple way to turn these chords into music is to have your left hand play the root note of the chord (in the bass or left-hand part of the keyboard), and your right hand play the chord (in the treble or right-hand part of the keyboard).
Now make a rhythm pattern where your left and right hands alternate. The simplest one would be a steady march: L – R – L – R
But you can create much more interesting rhythm patterns. One way is to tap some rhythms on your knees using left and right hands. And another is by listening to a backing track, getting into the feel of the rhythms, and stealing some ideas to play with and adapt!
Play with the backing track
Play along with the backing track below. At first you might want to stick with just one chord (single note in the left hand – the root of the chord – and the 3-note chord in the right hand). Once you have some rhythmic ideas, practise changing chords too.