Type of Chords in Music Theory

Table of Contents

Triads and Chords

Triads are made up of 3 notes, where the chords are made up at least 4 notes. There are several common types of chords in music theory, such as major, minor, diminished, augmented, and also mix and match in between.

Major Chord is built with Major 3rd and a Minor 3rd.

Minor Chord is built with Minor 3rd and a Major 3rd.

Diminished chord is built with two Minor 3rd.

Augmented Chord is built with two Major 3rd.

Some Advanced Chords are 7th, 9th, suspended.

What are the differences between added 9th and sus 9th?

Sus means suspension, therefore in a C major triad, if we are writing Cadd9, the 9th note from C will be added, we can play the D note either the top or below the register, so in this case, it will be C, D, E, G.

But if we wrote Csus9, it means the E is omitted. Why? The D note from the C triad has to resolve to E note, this is where suspension comes into place.

Suspension chords are chords that make you hang around without giving you an answer, but “added” chords give you fuller harmonies to the music.

How to form the 7th chord?

The 7th chord is built from 1,3,5,7 (4 notes). To identify a chord whether is a Major or Minor 7th is to be based on the relation between the 1st note to the 7th note. For example, C to B is a Major 7th, so it can be a Major 7th (C, E, G, B) or Minor Major 7th (C, Eb, G, B)

Parallel Chords mean the chords are moving in the same direction

Borrow Chord means taking chords from the other parallel keys. Usually, we are taking chords from the minor key. For example, in the key of C major. The chords are C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, Bdim, C. In the key of C minor, chords are C, Ddim, Eb, Fm, G, Ab, Bb, C.

So we can use the 4th chord from the minor key to the major key to create a different color (sad) to the music.