You must have a mastery of intervals, by sight and by ear, before proceeding to this lesson.

Let us first define a few terms before proceeding:


chord - two or more notes played at the same time
triad - a three-note chord
root (of a chord) - the note associated with the name of the chord, usually found by "stacking in thirds" and then finding the lowest note
bass (of a chord) - the lowest note of a chord (note the difference between bass and root - the bass is just the straight-up lowest note of a chord)
seventh chord - a triad with an additional 7th above the root

There are four basic triad qualities that we can create, given any note:

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j266/Bbclarinetist/Noname-25.jpg

The names are indicated by the chord symbols above them (M = major, m = minor, + = augmented, º = diminished). Notice how these triads are created by intervals.

For each chord above, C is the root (since the triads are "stacked" in thirds and C is the lowest note) and the bass (since C is just the lowest note for all of them).

[still in draft stage]