 Hi. This is vertical theory lesson five. It's now time to really move on to a very important portion of your theory learning at this point as part of the instruction here at NCSSM. Today's lesson is on the diatonic nature of triads based on a major and minor scale. So this is very important as we begin analyzing music and taking a look at the real function of notes within the context of a song. So we'll try to go through all of this stuff in a very clear and methodical way and hopefully you'll really begin to get an idea of how to analyze a piece of music based on the notes and chords that are represented in the piece. So let's go ahead and get started. As we take a look at the staff, I'm going to begin by just writing a simple major scale. So we've got C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Now, and of course the last note, C. Now this is a major scale. I'm using the key of C because it's kind of easy to relate to in that there are no sharps and flats. We're just looking at white keys. Now, if we take a look at the major scale, we can create a chord or a triad based on each step of the scale. So if I start with the very first note, the C, and then we were to create a triad, remember it's the first, third, and fifth notes of the scale make up a C chord. So that would be a C, an E, and a G. If we create a triad based on the second step of the scale, it would be the notes D already written, F and A. In other words, the notes that are a third and a fifth above that note. And then we could do the same thing for each subsequent note that's represented. And in fact, I have already done that on this frame. So if you take a look here, I have a triad based on the note C, a triad based on the note D, a triad based on the note E, F, G, A, B, and C. And you'll notice that the notes in the triad are straight from the C major scale. In other words, there are no sharps or flats in this particular instance. So we've got that. In fact, I'm going to make a little correction here. I'm going to take that C away there and I'm just going to put it above the line. Now, if we go to each of these triads and we take a look at the intervals that are represented, we're going to find some very interesting things. If we were to analyze this first triad based on C, we would find that it is a major chord or a C major triad. And that gets represented by a capital Roman numeral 1. And I'm going to write below that C major, C major triad. The second one, D, F, and A is a minor triad and it is represented by a small case Roman numeral 2. And it is a D minor chord. The third one, E, G, and B is also minor. So we're going to use a small 3. And again, that Roman numeral 3 is saying that it's the triad based on the third step of the scale. So it in fact is an E minor triad. The fourth is a major triad and it's F major. The fifth is a major triad and it is G major. The sixth step is a minor triad, A minor. The B is a diminished triad and it of course is B diminished. And then our last one is C. We're back to 1. Now this is really important. Anytime we build triads on the notes of a major scale, they will fall in this order. The triad built on the first step of the scale is major. The triad built on the second step of the scale is minor. The triad built on the third step of the scale, minor. The triad built on the fourth step, major. Fifth step, major. Sixth step, minor. The seventh step is diminished and then it gets back to 1 again, to the major triad. This works for all major scales. So if we come over to the next scale that I have represented here, you'll notice that we have the key signature of two sharps and a D major triad here. This is the D major scale and we've built a triad on each step of the scale and without even analyzing each of these triads, I can tell you unequivocably that the first, the triad built on the first step is a major. The second step is a minor. The third step is a minor. Fourth step, major. Fifth step, major. Sixth step, minor. Seventh step, diminished. And the eighth step, back to the major again, D, F sharp and A. I'd like you to take a minute and just go through each of these triads that are represented and make sure that you agree with me that the first step is major, the second is minor. You know how to analyze them at this point. A major triad is a major third and then a minor third above that. A minor triad is a minor third with a major third above that and of course it diminished as two minor triads. So we have that and that is the first representation of the diatonic nature of triads in a major key. Now there are a couple of things that are important to note here. We have three triads in that major key that take on huge importance. They are the first, the fourth and the fifth. The first triads are known as primary triads. And the reason for that is that within each of those triads or chords, every single note of the major scale is represented. If we take a look at the one chord, in this case the D major chord, the one has D, F sharp and A. The four chord has G, B and D and the five chord has A, C sharp and E. We take a look at that, D, E, F sharp, G, A, B, C sharp, D. And there's our good old pattern, whole, whole, half, whole, whole, half, the major scale. So all of the notes of the major scale are represented within the three triads that are called primary. The major one, the major four and the major five chord based on the steps of the scale. One other piece of information that's important for you to know as we really try to define the diatonic triads in a major key is the name of each of the steps of the scale as they pertain to the nature of the triads. The one chord or the chord based on the first step of the scale is always called the tonic. The tonic is in musical terms considered to be home base. It's a place of rest, it's the place where our ear wants us to always return to. So that's very important. The second sort of most important chord in terms of name is the five chord and it's called the dominant. Now the role of the dominant is always to sort of pull our ear back to the tonic. So anytime something has the role of dominant or the five chord, its role is to pull us back to tonic. The next most vital, and this won't surprise you because we just did primary chords, is the four chord. It's called the subdominant. And that's just important to know its name. And each of the other steps has a name as well. The two is known as the super tonic because it's just a little above the tonic. The three is known as the mediant, I suppose because it's between the dominant and the tonic. The sixth chord is known as the submediant and the seventh chord is known as the leading tone. And that's kind of important because the root of the seventh chord, the B, is known as the leading tone leading us back up to C, the tonic, the name of the key. B is the half step from B to C is the half step in the major scale. So the role of each of those chords, the one chord is major, the two is minor, three is minor, four is major, five is major, six minor, and seven diminished. And they have the names tonic, super tonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant, submediant, and leading tone. Now you should be ready to go ahead and begin the assignment. And I look forward to seeing the results. I hope this was all clear for you.