Chapter 2: Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?

Come on, let’s go and play…

with music!

Yep, welcome back! After a week (and two days) of rest, I hope you guys are feeling ready to go and play with a LOT of musical terms (which you may or may not already be familiar with)! For the past few days, I’ve been reading, writing, and working through my two theory books, so I’m going to share some of the concepts I reviewed. Without further ado, let’s start!

Key Signatures, Majors, and Minors

If you’ve ever glanced at a piece of music, you might’ve spotted a few seemingly random sharps (#) and flats (b). The different numbers of flats/sharps are part of the key signature. 

The Circle of Fifths (shown above) displays all 12 major keys with their relative minor keys. It’s interesting to note that the interval of a perfect fifth separates each key on the circle from its adjacent key, which requires just the addition or subtraction of 1 sharp or flat. 

However, you may notice that one key signature can represent either a major key (in red) or its relative minor (in green). Identifying the correct key of the music is a crucial step in understanding, later, the chord progression. 

Soooo…to determine the key: 

• Look at the given key signature: identify the possible major and the possible relative minor (e.g. four flats could mean Ab Major OR f minor)
• Listen to it: if it feels sad, it’s likely minor; if it feels happy, it’s likely major (BUT this is NOT definitive)
• Analyze the notes and melodies themselves: does it outline a major/minor’s tonic (1st degree) or dominant (5th degree) triad? does it follow the scale of the key? does it end on the key’s tonic note?

Chords and Inversions

A triad is a type of chord that consists of three notes separated by thirds. The bottom note of a triad is the root, the middle note is the third, and the very top note is the fifth. Triads are named by their root. 

• Major triads consist of a major third and perfect fifth above the root (4 half-steps from the root, then 3 half-steps from the third). For instance, an E Major triad be E, G#, B. The Dominant 7th chord is basically a major triad plus an additional note that is 3 half-steps above the fifth. 
• Minor triads, on the other hand, consist of a minor third and a perfect fifth above the root (3 half-steps from the root, then 4 half-steps from the third). Using the same root of E, an E minor triad would be E, G, B.
• Diminished triads consist of a minor third and a diminished fifth above the root (3 half-steps from the root, then another 3 half-steps from the third). Again the same root of E, an E diminished triad would be E, G, Bb.
• Augmented triads consist of a major third and an augmented fifth above the root (4 half-steps from the root, then another 4 half-steps from the third). Yep, you guessed it! The same root of E (I mean…I just love E that much…). An E augmented triad would be E, G#, B#.

Root/quality chord symbols help label triads: 

• for Major triads, simply use the capital letter of the root (e.g. E for E Major triad)
• for minor triads, use the lowercase letter and “m” (e.g. em for e minor triad)
• for diminished triads, use the lowercase letter and “°” or “dim” (e.g. e° or edim for e diminished triad)
• for Augmented triads, use the capital letter and “+” or “Aug” (e.g. E+ or EAug for E Augmented triad). 

If this all seems a little too complicated, do you wanna build a snowman…?? Yes!!!

Here’s a simpler analogy: think of the triad as a snowman—two snowballs stacked on top of each other!! One snowball represents the distance between the root and the third, and the other represents the distance between the third and the fifth. 

Aaaaanddd…there you go!

A very simplified (and condensed) version of what I wrote above! A smaller snowball means an interval of 3 half-steps, while a bigger snowball means an interval of 4 half-steps. Hmmm…such a masterpiece (used up all my artistic skills here btw…)

But wait! There’s more! We haven’t touched on inversions yet. Uh oh…

• Root position: root, third, fifth 
• First inversion: third, fifth, root 
• Second inversion: fifth, root, third 

Well, that was a crazy lot to digest, so I’ll leave it here. Next week, I’ll wrap up the last tiny bit of our foundational knowledge and cover some literature that I’ve been reading! See you again in the next one!

Sources:

Celebrate Theory Book 6. RCM Publishing. Canada. Print.
Celebrate Theory Book 7. RCM Publishing. Canada. Print.