The Triad Triple Learning Tool

How fast does it take for you to tune out and shut down when someone says: here are some drills and exercises for you? As well meaning as this is, it's common for traditional piano students to feel this way.

But when you look past the monotony of drills and exercises, it's easy to see that many of them are learning tools. I want to share with you a triple learning tool in this article that will take you far beyond a beginner level and prepare you as an advanced player.

I'm calling this the Triad Triple Learning Tool. I've so aptly named it because it encompasses 3 different aspects of playing piano involving triads. I'll also say that it sounds musical which is usually the opposite of "music exercises." So let's take a look at it.

Triad Inversions

Inversions are simply the arrangement of notes in a chord. Triads are among the simplest inversions to understand.

Triads can be in root position, 1st inversion and 2nd inversion. C Major triad for example is:

Primary Chords

The primary chords are the most used chords in any given key.

They consist of the I IV and V chords. These chords are Major and are based on the first, fourth and fifth tones in the key. Let's look at the key of C Major for example.

Key of C MajorC Major Primary Chords

Modulation

Simply put, modulation is the process of changing keys within a piece of music. The most common modulation strategy is to move to the V chord of the key in which you're transitioning to and then move to the I chord of the key.

Modulating to the key of C Major, G Major is the V chord.C Major is the I chord.

We'll use all three elements for our Triad Triple Learning Tool. We'll start out on C Major triad which will be our I chord and add the root in the bass.From there, we'll go to the IV chord but instead of root position, we'll play it in 2nd inversion. This is the smoothest transition to the IV chord.

From there, we'll go to the V chord. We'll play it in 1st inversion which allows us to retain the top note of the chord.We revert back to C Major before modulating to the next key in our cycle.

We'll then modulate up a half step to the key of D flat. However, we must play the V chord first which will be A flat in 1st inversion as we did the V chord earlier in C Major.Now we play D flat major which is the I chord (the new key we've modulated to).Continuing the cycle, we go to the IV chord (G flat) in 2nd inversion.Then back to the V chord (A flat) in 1st inversion just as we did earlier.Back to D flat Major which is the I chord.This cycle continues up chromatically (every note) through every Major key until you arrive back to the original key you started on. In this case C Major, but as you may know you can start on any Major key.

Bonus

Our Triple Learning Tool is pretty straightforward with the triads that we're using. But a slight change in the way you're playing bass notes can make it far more interesting.

Let's go back to C Major and pick up modulating to D flat Major.Instead of playing A flat in the bass, just hold on to the C as you play the A flat Major chord in first inversion. You're just doubling the C by playing it in your left hand.This C is serving as a leading tone. A leading tone "leads" to a note one semitone away from another note. The result is a very smooth transition from one chord to another.

Now we're playing the D flat Major chord just as beforeWe'll continue to the IV chord in 2nd inversion just as before, but in our left hand we'll retain the I tone (or tonic) of the key.Then it's on to A flat major but again retaining the D flat in our left hand.