Lecture 07
Triads and Chord Construction
Building harmony from the ground up
Learning Objectives
At the end of the lesson, learners will be able to: (1) build major, minor, diminished, and augmented triads on any root; (2) identify the quality of a triad by ear; (3) play or sing the three notes of a triad in tune.
Lesson Discussion
Harmony begins with three notes. Learners stack thirds on a root and discover that the same three notes can sound stable, sad, tense, or strange depending on the intervals inside. We build triads on the staff, then move to the keyboard to hear them. The lesson finishes with a short chord-progression game in which learners choose a triad to fit a melody — their first taste of harmonisation.
Instructional Materials
Slide deck · Triad-building worksheet · Keyboard or piano app · Chord-quality listening quiz · Melody harmonisation handout