Lesson 4

A chord is a combination of notes played together. A chord may be defined as: three distinct notes (a triad) of the musical alphabet played together. For example, a C-Major chord consists of these three notes: C, E, and G. When you play the C, E, and G notes together, you are playing a C-Major chord. The first note of a chord triad (a triad is another name for a combination of three notes) is called the root. The root is also the first word or term in the name of the chord. In the example of a C-Major chord, can you guess what the root note is?

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Did you say "C"? C is correct! The root note of the C-Major chord is a C note. The C-note is the first note in the triad of notes that make up the C-Major chord. Thus, C is the root note of the C-Major chord. The other notes in the C-Major chord triad are intervals of C. Intervals are the distances between notes in the musical alphabet. Intervals are usually measure in reference to a particular scale. For example, if you use a C note as the root, working up the C-scale (the notes of which are: C, D, E, F, G, A, B), a D would be the 2nd interval, an E would be the 3rd interval, the F would be the fourth interval, G would be the fifth interval, A would be the sixth, and B the seventh interval. Do you see how that works? It is the distance from the root note, which in this case is C, to another note in the scale. 

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