49 Bonus - August 2024 - Chord Booster 2
Added 2024-08-29 10:44:59 +0000 UTCIn this month's bonus material, I’m excited to introduce you to a very useful set of chords called drop 2 triads. Many of you may already be familiar with drop 2 chords, but here’s a simple explanation to clarify.
Drop 2 chords are a type of voicing where the second highest note in a four-note chord is dropped down an octave. This technique results in a more spread-out, fuller sound, often used in jazz and other musical styles.
However, the chords we’ll focus on here are not four-note chords. Instead, we’re working with simple triads—major, minor, diminished, and augmented—along with their inversions.
The intervals for these triads and their inversions are as follows:
Major:
Root position: 1, 3, 5
1st inversion: 3, 5, 1
2nd inversion: 5, 1, 3
Minor:
Root position: 1, b3, 5
1st inversion: b3, 5, 1
2nd inversion: 5, 1, b3
Diminished:
Root position: 1, b3, b5
1st inversion: b3, b5, 1
2nd inversion: b5, 1, b3
Augmented:
Root position: 1, 3, #5
1st inversion: 3, #5, 1
2nd inversion: #5, 1, 3
To form our drop 2 triads, we take the middle note from each inversion and displace it by an octave, either higher or lower.
I’ve prepared two PDFs for you. The first one provides graphical diagrams of these chords, and the second one includes tabs/sheet music. In the tabs/sheet music PDF, I’ve shown major and minor drop 2 chords for each position. The diminished and augmented chords are grouped together and displayed horizontally across the strings.
In some of the upcoming monthly bonus materials, I’ll provide examples and demonstrate how to use these chords in different harmonic contexts and fingerstyle techniques.
