Chords of the Diatonic Major Scale

Constructing Chords with the Major Scale

Building Triads in C major

A triad can be created on every degree of the major scale by stacking two notes above each note in the scale. The specific notes to use can be determined simply by going through the scale and adding every other note until there is a total of three notes.

Chord Roots

The root of a chord is the same note as the letter name of the chord. For example, in a D major chord, the root of the chord is D. In this lesson, the root of the chord can also be thought of as the first, or lowest, note in the chord. However, the root is not always the lowest note in the chord in all situations. Chords are often inverted.

The Tonic Chord

root note	chord type	scale degrees in chord	tonic chord in C major
tonic	major	1, 3, and 5	C major

The first chord is built on the first degree, or tonic, of the scale. The tonic chord in the major scale is always a major chord. The example below shows the notes in the C major chord highlighted. Notice how the notes D and F are skipped.

The notes in a C major chord highlighted

Chords can be built on every other degree of the scale using this approach. The other six triads in C major are shown below with details on the type of chord and which scale degrees are included in each chord.

The Supertonic Chord

root note	chord type	scale degrees in chord	supertonic chord in C major
supertonic	minor	2, 4, and 6	D minor

The notes in a D minor chord highlighted

The Mediant Chord

root note	chord type	scale degrees in chord	chord in C major
mediant	minor	3, 5, and 7	E minor

The notes in a e minor chord highlighted

The Subdominant Chord

root note	chord type	scale degrees in chord	chord in C major
subdominant	major	4, 6, and 1	F major

The notes in an F major chord highlighted

The Dominant Chord

root note	chord type	scale degrees in chord	chord in C major
dominant	major	5, 7, 2	G major

The major scale has to be continued up through a second octave in order to accommodate the notes in this chord along with the submediant and leading tone chords.

The notes in a G major chord highlighted

The Submediant Chord

root note	chord type	scale degrees in chord	chord in C major
submediant	minor	6, 1, 3	A minor

The notes in an A minor chord highlighted

The Leading Tone Chord

root note	chord type	scale degrees in chord	chord in C major
supertonic	diminished	7, 2, and 4	B diminished

The notes in a B diminished chord highlighted

The Seven Triads in C Major

All of the triads in C major are shown below with the notes in each chord stacked on top of each other. Each chord is labeled accoring to the root and type of chord. For example, the second chord in the example, is called a D minor chord because the root is D and the type of chord is minor. This concept can be applied to naming any of the chords in the major scale.

Chords constructed on each degree of the major scale

The notes in these chords are shown again in the table below to make it easy to compare the chords to each other:

Chord	C	D	E	F	G	A	B	C	D	E	F
C major	X		X		X
D minor		X		X		X
E minor			X		X		X
F major				X		X		X
G major					X		X		X
A minor						X		X		X
B diminished							X		X		X

Types of Chords

There is a specific pattern of chord types that corresponds to the degrees of every major scale. For example, the chord built on the second degree of any major scale will always be minor. Here is a chart listing the type of chord on each scale degree:

Degree	Type of Chord
1	major
2	minor
3	minor
4	major
5	major
6	minor
7	diminished

Identifying Chords with Roman Numerals

Roman numerals are often used to label chords in the major scale. The numerals will be lowercase or capitalized based on the type of chord.

Type of Chord	Description	Example
major	capital Roman numeral	IV
minor	lower case Roman numeral	iii
diminished	lower case Roman numeral with a '°' after the numeral	vii°
augmented	capital Roman numeral with a '+' after the numeral	III+

While no augmented chords appear in the major scale, they are mentioned here for the sake of completeness. Roman numerals will be applied to other scales where augmented chords do occur, so this will prepare you for future lessons.

Applying these labels to the chords in C major would result in the following:

Chords in C major labeled with Roman numerals

Exercises

Write out chords on each degree of all major scales. Label each chord with the following details:

1. name and type of chord
2. Roman numeral

For example, in C major, you would label the first chord with 'C major' and 'I' to indicate the name and type of the chord as well as the Roman numeral. Make sure you include any accidentals when writing the notes in each chord.