Stacking Triads and Seventh Chords: A G Major Lesson

After you've played your triads, I want you to stack something one more third above that. Remember, this is all completely diatonic, so the only thing that you have to remember is the key signature.

Key Signature: G Major

• We're playing in the key of G major.
• Everything is a natural note except for F sharp.

As I start to stack these things above a triad, a third above this, diatonically, it's not F natural; it's F sharp. This is the sound of an A major seven arpeggio.

Exercise: Adding a Third

So, I want you to do the same thing that you did with your triads, but add one more third above that.

• This can really be helpful.
• I spent a lot of my early years writing exercises out for myself.

Don't think that you should be able to achieve 100% accuracy in this type of stuff. Just like I'm doing it right now:

1. If it's difficult for you, it's definitely worth getting some manuscript paper.
2. Put the key signature there and write the stuff out for yourself.
3. Then play it.

Once you do that, and maybe write it out in a few different keys, you'll start to get it.

Note: If you go that route, just make sure not to tie yourself to the page.

I urge you to get the flavor and the technical side, the accuracy together, and then put the stuff down and do it just on your instruments.

Seventh Chords of G Major

Here are the seventh chords of G major:

• First mode
• Second mode
• Third mode
• Fourth mode
• Fifth mode

Ah, that sounds a little bit different now. Dominant.

And here's that weird seventh mode that I said we were going to talk about. So, what is that?

• It's not fully diminished.
• Fully diminished is where everything is stacked in minor thirds.

But this isn't quite that. Here's how it's stacked:

• Minor third
• Minor third
• Major third

This is referred to as the half diminished. You could also call it a Locrian seventh chord, but it's usually referred to as a half diminished or a minor 7 flat 5.

Practice Strategies

I would urge you to do these things just like you did with all of the triads:

• In different directions: up, up, down, down, up, down, down, up.

You're going to start to hear some really interesting things happen. That's just one pattern that I picked, so start playing around with seventh chords.

Inversions of Arpeggios

As string players, we tend to not think about inversions of arpeggios, so we play everything in root position or however the concerto on the page has us playing it.

The first thing that I would like you to do is:

1. Take a basic G major arpeggio from the one.
2. Now, play from the third of the scale, or the second note of the arpeggio, which is B, and play B to B.

So the first time we went:

• Then I want you to go like this.
• And finally, I want you to go like this.

Inversions

Inversions can be practiced with every type of arpeggio and every chord that you do.

Tip: If you can get to a piano or if you want to write this out so that you can actually see what's going on, do that.

• Go slow,
• Be accurate,
• And have fun!