Building triads on the keyboard – free music theory course

Knowing what a triad is isn't enough: a pianist must be able to find any chord in a split second. Here are three complementary methods.

1. From the scale

Take the major scale of the root and keep degrees 1, 3 and 5. D major: scale D–E–F♯–G–A → D–F♯–A. For the minor chord, lower the third by a semitone: D–F–A.

2. By semitones

Major = 4 + 3, minor = 3 + 4. Count keys (white and black): from E, 4 semitones up is G♯, then 3 more: B. E major = E–G♯–B.

3. By “shapes” (the pianist's method)

The twelve major chords fall into a few visual families. Learn them as hand shapes:

Shape	Major chords
White – white – white	C, F, G
White – black – white	D (D–F♯–A), E (E–G♯–B), A (A–C♯–E)
Black – white – black	D♭ (D♭–F–A♭), E♭ (E♭–G–B♭), A♭ (A♭–C–E♭)
Black – black – black	G♭ / F♯ (F♯–A♯–C♯)
Special cases	B (B–D♯–F♯), B♭ (B♭–D–F)

To switch to minor, just move the middle finger one key to the left: D major's white-black-white shape becomes white-white-white for D minor.

Listen to D major broken, then compare with the keyboard:

Triads on the white keys

If you build a triad on every note of the C major scale, staying on the white keys, you always get the same sequence of qualities: major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminished. We'll come back to this in detail in the harmony chapter.

M:4/4
L:1/4
K:C
"C"[CEG] "Dm"[DFA] "Em"[EGB] "F"[FAc] | "G"[GBd] "Am"[Ace] "Bdim"[Bdf] "C"[ceg] |]

Fingering: right hand 1-3-5, left hand 5-3-1. To move between triads quickly, keep the hand “in shape” and shift it as a block, watching the bottom note.

Spelling: a triad is always spelled with every other letter. D major is D–F♯–A, not D–G♭–A, even though F♯ and G♭ are the same key. Good spelling will help your reading enormously.

Exercise: play the 12 major chords following the circle of fifths (C, G, D, A, E, B, F♯, D♭, A♭, E♭, B♭, F), then the 12 minor chords.