In this instructional video, J. Anthony Allen introduces triads as the foundational three‑note building blocks of chords. He emphasizes the significance of the number three, explaining that triads consist of three notes spaced a third apart, which provides enough information to define a chord’s quality (major, minor, etc.). Allen contrasts triads with dyads (two‑note chords) and uses a house analogy to illustrate how additional notes (four‑note chords, five‑note chords, etc.) are extensions built upon the basic triad structure. He signals that the next segment will detail the specific pattern for selecting the three notes that form a triad.
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When we're building chords, the magic number to remember is the number three. Three is what gets us through our chords. Now here's why we're first going to start talking about triads. Now triads, as you can probably guess from the name because it starts with tri, T, R, I. It means chords with three notes. Okay, we can have more. Eventually we'll see chords with four notes and we'll see chords with five notes, maybe even six notes. It can happen. But a triad gives us the basic building block for all chords. So it's got three notes and we need these three notes to really give, to get enough information out of the chord for it to give us the sound that tells us if it's major or minor or all these things. We can have less. You can have a two note chord, it's called a dyad. And we often, when we see those, we kind of think of them as triads with a missing note usually. So we don't really focus on dyads very much. Triads is the way that we. It's kind of like, like a triad is like if you had. Imagine you have a very simple house, that's a triad. You can add on to your house and build more. You can add another room and have four notes on your chord and that's going to give it a little bit different character. You can add a pool in the back. It's going to add five notes to your chord and it's going to have a little bit different character still. But, but you gotta have the basic house in order to add onto it. And that is a triad. It's the most basic thing. So I told you to pay attention to the number three. And that's not just because of triads. Triads as we talk about them are made up of three notes. That's why we care about the number three. Now there's another reason that we care about the number three also is because each note is in a triad is a third apart. So this magic number three has two things. So that third apart business, let's focus on that for the next section. So for this video, the thing I want you to remember is that we're going to start with our most basic building block of chords, which is called the triad because it has three notes in it. Up next, what are those three notes? How do we decide what three notes to put in there? We can't just put any three notes. There's a pattern to it. Right? I promised more patterns and this is it. So in the next video, what three notes.
