Triads and 7th Chords – Earl MacDonald – Composer, Jazz Pianist, Music Educator

By beginning with a thorough explanation of jazz chord symbols we will lay a solid foundation on which to build. This first lesson will address triads and 7^th chords.

Use the attached documents at the bottom of this article, in conjunction with this (and the next) lesson. Chords with more than 4 notes will be explained in lesson #2: Chordal Extensions and Alterations.

* note: at 1:31 in the video, I mistakenly typed ^b5, when it should be a natural 5.

I. Triads:

There are four basic triad types: major, minor, diminished and augmented.

Assign numbers to each note, in relation to a major scale. Below, after listing the numbers for each chord type, I have listed several chord symbols one might encounter, beginning with my preference. For this example I will use the key of D.

Major:	1, 3, 5	D
Minor:	1, ^b3, 5	Dmi, Dm, Dmin, D-
Diminshed:	1, ^b3, ^b5	Ddim, D^o
Augmented:	1, 3, ^#5	Daug, D^x, D⁺, D^(#5)

II. Seventh Chords

Now, let’s progress to 4-note, “seventh” chords, working our way through the various chord families. In tonic chords (both major & minor) the sixth can substitute for the seventh.

Major Family (tonic function):

Maj⁷: 1, 3, 5, 7

Maj⁶: 1, 3, 5, 6

Maj^7(#5): 1, 3, ^#5, 7

Minor Family (tonic function):

mi^(maj7): 1, ^b3, 5, 7

mi⁶: 1, ^b3, 5, 6

Dominant Family (also known as “seventh chords”):

7: 1, 3, 5, ^b7

7^(b5): 1, 3, ^b5,^b7

7^(#5): 1, 3, ^#5, ^b7

Minor pre-dominant Family:

mi⁷: 1,^b3, 5, ^b7

mi^7(b5): 1,^b3, ^b5, ^b7

Diminished:

dim⁷: 1, ^b3, ^b5, 6

PDF Attachments:

Chord Construction Worksheet
Chord Symbol Notation & Identification
KEY – Chord Construction Worksheet

Homework Practice Assignments:

Construct all of the above listed chords in 2 keys every day. On “day 1”, work in the keys of C and D^b. On “day 2”, play through D and E^b, etc. Because you will be relating all numeric formulas to major scales, play the scale first, before building any chords.
If you have a firm grasp of the 12 major scales, have a friend quiz you, asking for random, root position triads in random keys. For example: Emi, B^bdim, Faug, B, etc.