Tonic Triads
Tonic Triads
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when we play two or more notes together, it's a called a chord.
A tonic triad is a type of chord where the 1st, 3rd and 5th degrees of a scale are played together.
Let's understand triads by taking the example of the most simple major scale in music theory,
here's the C major scale :
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8(1)
C D E F G A B C
if we play the 1st,3rd and 5th degrees (i.e. the notes C,E and G) together then it is called the tonic triad of the C major scale.
here's the tonic triad for the C major scale on the stave
It is called the tonic triad because the chord is built upon the 1st degree (the tonic) of the C major scale and contains 3 notes.
Very often you might notice a Roman Numeral(I) written below it, showing that the chord is built upon the first degree of the scale.
Another thing composers do is that they mention the tonic note above the stave, especially if they are writing chord symbols for guitar.
In fact, we can use the chord symbol of "C" for any chord that's made up of the notes from the triad, here's an example :
And that’s All for this article ! To quench your intrigue and clear the plot holes that we created in this lesson do check out our other articles .
PEACE ! 🎼 👈 that’s a treble clef btw :)
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