The Building Blocks of a Triad (Guitar Lesson)
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The Building Blocks of a Triad
Join Don as he breaks down the intervals that go into making a major or minor triad.
Taught by Don Ross in Play Songs By Ear seriesLength: 24:42Difficulty: 1.5 of 5
Video Subtitles / Captions
Supplemental Learning Material
Play Songs By Ear
Found in our Beginner Lesson SetsYour ears can be one of your most valuable assets as a musician. In this series, Don is going to show you how to translate what you hear into what you play. This series is designed to build your confidence and equip you with the valuable skill of playing music by ear.
Lesson 1
Series Introduction
Don gives an overview of what to expect from this series.
Length: 4:20 Difficulty: 0.0 Members Only
The Sound of the Major Scale
Utilizing the visual element of a piano keyboard, and your ears (of course), Don walks through the intervals of the Major Scale.
Length: 12:09 Difficulty: 1.0 Members Only
Semitones and Whole Tones
As we begin to look at intervals, we start with the smallest classified interval, as semitone, and will look at 2nd and 3rd intervals as well.
Length: 18:52 Difficulty: 1.0 Members Only
The 4th & 5th Intervals
Don continues to explore the concept of intervals, now looking at the 4th and 5th scale degrees.
Length: 16:46 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
The 6th & 7th Intervals
In this lesson, we're going to look at the last two intervals in a Major Scale, the 6th and 7th.
Length: 15:06 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
Memorizing Intervals
In this lesson, Don teaches some helpful tools for memorizing the sound of the intervals.
Length: 11:06 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
The Building Blocks of a Triad
Join Don as he breaks down the intervals that go into making a major or minor triad.
Length: 24:42 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
Recognizing Major and Minor Chords by Ear
In this lesson, Don works on the skill of hearing the difference between a Major and Minor chord.
Length: 14:27 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
The Major I, IV and V Chords
In this lesson, Don examines three chords that are perhaps the most ubiquitous chords you'll find throughout mainstream music. Learn to recognize these chord intervals by ear.
Length: 10:29 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Recognizing the I, IV and V Chords by Ear
Continue strengthening your ear with Don with some listening exercises based around the I, IV and V chords in C Major.
Length: 9:53 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Overview: The Chords of C Major
Building off of what we've learned about the major chords in C Major, Don walks through all the diatonic chords and lays the groundwork for building progressions.
Length: 17:30 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Listening Exercise: Chords Sequences
Using our chord knowledge, we will start working on recognizing chord changes by ear through a number of listening exercises.
Length: 25:35 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Transposition
Transposition, is a vital skill for any versatile musician. In this lesson, Don introduces the basics and demonstrates how it's done.
Length: 13:01 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
About Don Ross
View Full Biography
Don has toured regularly since 1989, across Canada, the USA, a dozen European countries, Japan, Taiwan, China, Australia, Russia and India. He has played with symphony orchestras in Canada and Germany, and collaborated live and on recording with Andy McKee, Canadian singer/guitarist Brooke Miller, & Toronto bassist Jordan O’Connor. He also composes scores for television, radio and film, and does production and recording engineering for a variety of other musicians. In addition to acoustic guitar, Don also plays electric guitar, slide dobro and lapsteel guitar, voice, piano, keyboards, bass guitar and drums.
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Member Comments about this Lesson
Discussions with our instructors are just one of the many benefits of becoming a member of JamPlay.how do I work out the key of the song
Hello leeguitarman! It can be tricky to locate the key of a song with so many chords involved like this one. It's usually the key that you start with or the one that is the most predominant. I found a great lesson by Will Ripley that covers this exact situation! You can copy and paste this link into your browser: http://members.jamplay.com/guitar/phase-2/lesson/5577-how-to-find-the-key-of-a-song / I hope this is helpful :)
I'm really enjoying this series. Don is an amazing instructor. Love how he builds upon each lessons putting it all together step by step making it all really easy to understand. Using the keyboard is extremely helpful as well. Great job Don!!
This is an excellent lesson! His use of a piano keyboard truly helps simplify and clarify his points and explanations. Fun sense of humor, too. Thanks, Don!
Great great great series. Perhaps the most important course I've taken.
Loving this series :)