 Hi, it's now time for us to start the vertical theory portion of the theory lessons for classical piano and guitar class here at NCSSM These lessons are called vertical theory because they basically deal now with notes that are stacked on top of each other As opposed to notes that are sort of working in a linear fashion in the linear theory We're dealing with scales and intervals primarily in keys in the vertical theory We're dealing with triads or chords so we're going to start by Defining a few things making sure that you understand some of the terminology we'll be using and then we'll get right into the theory lesson First of all, it's important to understand that in music harmony results when we put notes together and they're played simultaneously so Chords or groups of notes played together help to create harmony when we put those pitches together in specific patterns That gives us chords Now in the harmony that we're used to hearing here in the West There are some very Relatively specific rules on chords and chord structure and we're going to begin really learning those rules here as part of this theory So let's go ahead and take a look as we move to the staff and begin to get into some of the real specifics here chords are also known in their most basically in their most basic form as Triads now that term triads comes because there are three notes that are going to be working together now in the interval portion of linear theory you learned how to identify all of the different intervals and Triads are based very strongly on Thirds in fact a triad consists of three notes that are built in thirds the lowest note of The triad is known as the root Okay, and the root is In some ways the most important note of the triad Then and we have the next note which is known as the third and Of course the top note which we'll think of as the fifth And I think that makes sense because if we're thinking about the interval the interval from the root to the next note Up is a third and the interval from that note to the from the root to the top note is a fifth So I think that should make pretty good sense to all of you, but what is the what is the Specific interval well from the root and we'll put root 3 5 up here that sort of Represents our triad from the root to the third needs to be a for a major chord It needs to be a major third This is for a major Triad and from the third to the fifth needs to be a minor third Incidentally just for your information the distance from the root to the fifth ends up being a perfect fifth and This will build a major Chord for us or a major triad From root to third is a major third from third to fifth is a minor third Okay, if we take a look at the chord that I built right there the notes are G B and D So if we have Let's go to our other screen. We have G B and D in that order From G to B Has to be a major third and in fact one two three four half steps And from B to D has to be a minor chord triad. There's our D One two three half steps. So in fact G B D is a major Triad Okay, let's move back and let's identify another kind of triad. How about a minor Triad Okay, we still have a root a third and a fifth But in a minor triad the distance from root to third is a minor third and The distance from third to fifth is a major third So a good example of a minor triad would be from G To be flat to D and In that case G Be flat D in that case. Let's just start up on this upper G. There's our G. There's our B flat There's our D One two three half steps. That's a minor third one two three four half steps. That's a major third so we have our major and our minor Triads if I were to give you Three notes and let's go ahead and give you the note a and we will Give you an a here and a here and a here now What I want to do is build a major triad using that a as The root here and we'll use it as the third here And we're going to use it as the fifth here and show you the process for doing this So here we have a is the root so we're just going to put a third above it and another third above that Okay, then here where a is the third will put a third below it And a third above it and here where a is the fifth we're going to put two-thirds below it So first of all we've got our triads note names determined, but we want to make a major Triad in all instances so we know the a has to remain a on each of them So let's do a little bit of work here and realize here in this one Where it's the root we have an a a c and an e a C and e so let's go to our Keyboard here, and we've got a C and e now for a major triad. It's got to be a major Third on the bottom one two three up to make it major. It's got to be C sharp so let's go back to that and simply go C sharp then We go from that C sharp, and we go one two three and sure enough that gives us a Minor third from C sharp to e so we've got a good major triad here the major triad is a C sharp and e so that's correct Okay, now. Let's look at the next one here. We have the letters f a and C Okay, there's our f Here's an a let's count our half steps one two three four Oh, so in fact an a is a major third above f and from a to C One two three so we have a major triad already With f a and C that doesn't need any sharps or flats of any kind Okay, now the last one we have df and a D f and a Remember we can't change the a it was given to us so from df and a we'll go back D Here's our f and here's our a Need a major third on the bottom one two three that won't work. We've got to go up here to f sharp and From f sharp one two three that works so D F sharp a Becomes our major triad And that would be how we could take that same note and sort of make it either the root or the third or the fifth of Various triads, okay now it's time for you to go ahead and take a look at the lesson and Try to apply some of this stuff that you have learned Remember a triad has a root a third and a fifth and it is a major third from the root to the third in a major chord or a major triad and a minor third from the third to the fifth and if we have a minor triad it's a minor third from root to third and Major third from third to fifth. Let me write that down one more time Just so that that stays clear in your mind a major triad from root to third to fifth is a major third and then a minor third For a minor triad from root to third is a minor third and From third to fifth is a major third I Hope that's clear and you can go ahead and go to work and do the first assignment in vertical pitch