Triad Building

Guide
Welcome to Your Triad Building Worksheet!
Okay, so here we are...ready to do a little Triad building! When I was first starting to wrap my head around the
“Theory” of music, this was a HUGE part of me “getting it”...and so I want you to have that too.

When you nail down your triads and understand the three notes that make up every chord, you are INCREDIBLY
empowered as a songwriter, composer and lead guitar player. See this is the essence of harmony. While we’re
dealing with just chord tones here, that is what MOST music will do.

If you were to break down the melodies of most songs, you’d find that very often it is either a root, third, or fifth of
the chord that’s playing on top of it. By memorizing your triads and subsequently how to find them all over your
guitar neck, the other scale degrees become that much easier to find. So I can’t stress enough how valuable triad
building is to your mastery of your fretboard.

You should already be quite familiar with building a Major Scale before attempting this exercise. You should be
able to spell any Key using our W-W-H-W-W-W-H formula and also be very clear on the idea of NEVER mixing
sharps and flats and how our notes of triads are always 3rds apart.

If you’re not at this level yet, this could prove difficult, so be sure to go thru the “Fundamentals of Music” PDF
that’s in your Music Made Easy Member’s Theory Module.

Well that’s it for this intro and the next page is triad heaven! If you have any questions on this, you can always
reach me via the website and my email that you have. So don’t be shy! I LOVE to hear from you and really help
you breakthrough the challenges you come up against.

You can do ANYTHING you want in music, and becoming a master of theory truly will free your fretboard like
nothing else!

Have fun with this!

Andrew

© 2015 Artist eVolution LLC, P.O. Box 6737 Bozeman, MT 59771 Lessons With Andrew [Link]/lessons/
 Let’s Build Some Triads
TRIAD MAJOR I-IV-V OF MAJOR KEYS? MINOR ii-iii-vi OF MAJOR KEYS? DIMINISHED vii MAJOR KEYS?
ROOT

Ab Wouldn’t write in Key of

A# Wouldn’t write in these Keys

Bb

B# Wouldn’t write in these Keys Wouldn’t write in these Keys

Cb Wouldn’t write in these Keys Wouldn’t write in Key of

C#

Db Wouldn’t write in Key of

D# Wouldn’t write in these Keys

Eb Wouldn’t write in Key of

E# Wouldn’t write in these Keys

Fb Wouldn’t write in these Keys Wouldn’t write in Key of

F#

Gb Wouldn’t write in these Keys Wouldn’t write in Key of

G#

TOTAL MAJOR TRIADS UNIQUE MAJOR TRIADS SHARED TONAL CENTER TRIADS TOTAL MAJOR KEYS

TOTAL MINOR TRIADS UNIQUE MINOR TRIADS SHARED TONAL CENTER TRIADS UNIQUE MAJOR KEYS

TOTAL DIMINISHED UNIQUE DIMINISHED SHARED TONAL CENTER TRIADS SHARED TONAL CENTERS
TRIADS TRIADS

© 2015 Artist eVolution LLC, P.O. Box 6737 Bozeman, MT 59771 Lessons With Andrew [Link]/lessons/
Let’s Review...
So what’s the point of this cheat sheet? It’s to help you double check your own triad spellings. It’s real easy in
the beginning to make mistakes with the #’s and b’s of it all, heck, I even had to double check myself on a few of
the triads that I never use.

See, when we get down to the 21 different note names we have, only 12 are unique, because as we’ve learned,
there’s only 12 notes in Western Music. However, depending on the Key I’m writing in, I’ll have to use all 21 of
these triad roots to get the job done.

What you’ll see is that these 21 roots produce 15 total Major Keys for us to use in music. 3 of those Keys will be
tonally equivalent (i.e. the Key of Cb is the same tonal notes as the Key of B, but they’re totally different from a
writing and naming standpoint).

When you factor in the minor Keys (remember that every Major Key has a relative minor Key built from its 6th
scale degree), we then have 15 more. So in total there are 30 Keys in music, with 6 of them being tonally equal (3
of the Major Keys, and 3 of the minor Keys).

What you’ll find is that you’re not going to compose in all of these keys most likely. If you’re a vocalist, you’re
going to primarily write in your range (maybe 10 or so Keys at the max). Remember that Keys are identical from
an internal movement perspective. So the only reason to change keys is really only if you feel like making yourself
move around the fretboard or fit the vocalist’s range.

Sending my best your way,

Andrew

© 2015 Artist eVolution LLC, P.O. Box 6737 Bozeman, MT 59771 Lessons With Andrew [Link]/lessons/
 The Answers

TRIAD MAJOR CHORD VALUE OF MAJOR MINOR CHORD VALUE OF MAJOR DIMINISHED CHORD VALUE OF MAJOR
ROOT KEY KEY KEY

Ab Ab-C-Eb I of Ab, IV of Eb, V of Db Ab-Cb-Eb ii of Gb, vi of Cb Ab-Cb-Ebb Wouldn’t write in Key of Bbb

A A-C#-E I of A, IV of E, V of D A-C-E ii of G, iii of F, vi of C A-C-Eb vii of Bb

A# A#-C##-E# Wouldn’t write in these Keys A#-C#-E# iii of F#, vi of C# A#-C#-E vii of B

Bb Bb-D-F I of Bb, IV of F, V of Eb Bb-Db-F ii of Ab, iii of Gb, vi of Db Bb-Db-Fb vii of Cb

B B-D#-F# I of B, IV of F#, V of E B-D-F# ii of A, iii of G, vi of D B-D-F vii of C

B# B#-D##-F## Wouldn’t write in these Keys B#-D#-F## Wouldn’t write in these Keys B#-D#-F# vii of C#

Cb Cb-Eb-Gb I of Cb, IV of Gb Cb-Ebb-Gb Wouldn’t write in these Keys Cb-Ebb-Gbb Wouldn’t write in Key of Dbb

C C-E-G I of C, IV of G, V of F C-Eb-G ii of Bb, iii of Ab, vi of Eb C-Eb-Gb vii of Db

C# C#-E#-G# I of C#, V of F# C#-E-G# ii of B, iii of A, vi of E C#-E-G vii of D

Db Db-F-Ab I of Db, IV of Ab, V of Gb Db-Fb-Ab ii of Cb, iii of Bb Db-Fb-Abb Wouldn’t write in Key of Ebb

D D-F#-A I of D, IV of A, V of G D-F-A ii of C, iii of B, vi of F D-F-Ab vii of Eb

D# D#-F##-A# Wouldn’t write in these Keys D#-F#-A# ii of C#, vi of F# D#-F#-A vii of E

Eb Eb-G-Bb I of Eb, IV of Bb, V of Ab Eb-Gb-Bb ii of Db, iii Cb, vi of Gb Eb-Gb-Bbb Wouldn’t write in Key of Fbb

E E-G#-B I of E, IV of B, V of A E-G-B ii of D, iii of C, vi of G E-G-Bb vii of F

E# E#-G##-B# Wouldn’t write in these Keys E#-G#-B# iii C# E#-G#-B vii of F#

Fb Fb-Ab-Cb IV of Cb Fb-Abb-Cb Wouldn’t write in these Keys Fb-Abb-Cbb Wouldn’t write in Key of Gbb

F F-A-C I of F, IV of C, V of Bb F-Ab-C ii of Eb, iii of Db, vi of Ab F-Ab-Cb vii of Gb

F# F#-A#-C# I of F#, IV of C#, V of B F#-A-C# ii of E, iii of D, vi of A F#-A-C vii of G

Gb Gb-Bb-Db I of Gb, IV of Db, V of Cb Gb-Bbb-Db Wouldn’t write in these Keys Gb-Bbb-Dbb Wouldn’t write in Key of Abb

G G-B-D I of G, IV of D, V of C G-Bb-D ii of F, iii of Eb, vi of Bb G-Bb-Db vii of Ab

G# G#-B#-D# V of C# G#-B-D# ii of F#, iii of E, vi of B G#-B-D vii of A

TOTAL MAJOR TRIADS UNIQUE MAJOR TRIADS SHARED TONAL CENTER TRIADS TOTAL MAJOR KEYS

17 12 B/Cb, C#/Db, E/Fb, F#/Gb, G#/Ab 15

TOTAL MINOR TRIADS UNIQUE MINOR TRIADS SHARED TONAL CENTER TRIADS UNIQUE MAJOR KEYS

17 12 A#/Bb, C#/Db, D#/Eb, E#/F, G#/Ab 12

TOTAL DIMINISHED UNIQUE DIMINISHED SHARED TONAL CENTER TRIADS SHARED TONAL CENTERS
TRIADS TRIADS
B/Cb, C#/Db, F#/Gb
15 12 A#/Bb, B#/C, E#/F

© 2015 Artist eVolution LLC, P.O. Box 6737 Bozeman, MT 59771 Lessons With Andrew [Link]/lessons/