A Simple Way to Upgrade Four Types of Boring Triads

Most piano players would agree that triads (3 note chords) are the work horses in music. They can be used in any musical context and fit just about anywhere in a piece of music. But triads can quite easily turn into boring triads if a musician doesn't expand beyond them.

If you don't know exactly where to go beyond triads, I want to share with you a simple way to upgrade four types of boring triads.

First of all, a triad is a three note chord. The most common is a Major triad. But that's not the only triad that exists. There are four basic triads in music so we'll start with these first.

We'll use the key of C Major to build our first triad.If we take the 1st, 3rd and 5th tones, we have the C Major triad.Let's use the key of C minor to build our second triad.

If we take the 1st, 3rd and 5th tones, we have the C minor triad.

If you're already familiar with the Major triad, you can simply raise the 5th up a half step to arrive at the C augmented triad.If you're already familiar with the minor triad, you can simply lower the 5th down a half step to arrive at the C diminished triad.

Let's review the four basic triads in C.Now that we know these basic triads, let's convert them from boring triads by upgrading them.

If you're familiar with half step and whole steps, this will be an easy way to upgrade boring triads no matter what key you're constructing them in.

A half step is the distance from one key to the very next key black or white.A whole step is the distance from one key to the very next key by skipping a key.

With this concept at hand, we can add the note that is one half step or one whole step below the root (first note in the key).

Let's start with a whole step.

If we take our C Major triad and add the note that is a whole step below it, we arrive at B flat.This creates a C dominant 7th chord.A more common voicing may look like this.

We'll take our C minor triad and again add the note a whole step below the root (B flat).This creates a C minor 7.A more common voicing may look like this.Now let's take our diminished triad and add the note that's a whole step below the root (B flat).  FYI, the degree symbol with a line through it denotes a minor 7 flat 5 chord.This creates a C minor 7 flat 5 chord (also known as half diminished 7th)A more common voicing may look like this.

We'll then take our Augmented triad and add the same whole step note below the root (B flat).This creates a C7 Augmented chord.

A more common voicing may look like this.

Let's move on to a half step.

If we take our C Major triad and add the note that is a half step below it, we arrive at B.This creates a C Major 7th chord.A more common voicing may look like this.We'll take our C minor triad and again add the note a half step below the root (B).This creates a C minor/Major 7 chord.A more common voicing may look like this.