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Stuck on this about 3 notes

#24
bassville pete said:
It's my understand that a triad is 3 notes. Like for the C chord it would be C E and G.

So I'm studying off of Stu's Bass Basic and he goes over a power chord. The Root, lets say it A and the 5th note on the A string 7th fret would be a the E note and the Octave would be the A on the D string 7th fret. I can't make it out, but he seems to be saying its a triad. Is that correct?

Also he gave a name for a power chord using the root and 5th. It sounded like " diad" . I couldn't make it out, so what would one be calling it other then a power chord just using the root and 5th notes ?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

triad = 3 notes ...
 
#28
Papageno said:
A 2-note chord is called a dyad.
A 4-note chord is called a tetrad.
I am not aware of a specific name for chords with 5 (or more) notes.
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Well in truth, the definition of a chord is three or more notes played together. So, there really are no diad chords. That's probably why they're referred to as power chords. Because they're not actually chords. So, you can't actually classify them as C, D, etc.
 
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#29
JeezyMcNuggles said:
Well in truth, the definition of a chord is three or more notes played together. So, there really are no diad chords. That's probably why they're referred to as power chords. Because they're not actually chords. So, you can't actually classify them as C, D, etc.
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Correct. In classical music, the term chord is restricted to compound sounds of 3 or more notes. So-called "power chords" are completely absent from classical music, because of their harmonic paucity.
Dyad is spelled with a "y".
 
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#30
Papageno said:
Correct. In classical music, the term chord is restricted to compound sounds of 3 or more notes. So-called "power chords" are completely absent from classical music, because of their harmonic paucity.
Dyad is spelled with a "y".
Click to expand...
Oh, I'm thinking of Bi. Its Greek. Not latin
 
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#31
Sure am glad I asked this question. I bet it got a lot of you here away from the TV ( corona virus lock down ) and picked back up the bass.
Again, thanks for all your replies.

By the way, are any of you familiar with any of Stu Hamm's video lessons. The video I have seems to be quite old, and is he a member here ?
 
#32
Hi Bassville Pete,
Good to see you and the new bass are getting along. Keep practicing and studying; a year from now a lot of the things you are working on now will be second-nature, to be replaced by other new stuff to work on! :woot: I'm currently trying to wrap my head around some music theory stuff as well, but half the fun is learning and growing as a musician.
Happy Holidays!:thumbsup:
 
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#33
bassville pete said:
Sure am glad I asked this question. I bet it got a lot of you here away from the TV ( corona virus lock down ) and picked back up the bass.
Again, thanks for all your replies.

By the way, are any of you familiar with any of Stu Hamm's video lessons. The video I have seems to be quite old, and is he a member here ?
Click to expand...
I have been sitting around reading old stacks of Bass Player magazine from 1989. Stu had his video back then! I don't think he deigns the internet fora, but who knows?
 
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#36
JeezyMcNuggles said:
Well in truth, the definition of a chord is three or more notes played together. So, there really are no diad chords. That's probably why they're referred to as power chords. Because they're not actually chords. So, you can't actually classify them as C, D, etc.
Click to expand...
This^^ 100%. A triad is designed to outline the foundation of the chord. A root and perfect fifth (what we're calling a power chord) can be ambiguous and imply a few different chord types (won't get into the nitty gritty now), so generally they're used in harmony situations rather than for a guitar melody. It helps to understand that a "chord" has certain characteristics that just a root and fifth ("power chord") doesn't have, so it's not strictly a chord.

Hope this helped! Good luck with the theory - it can get pretty hairy. :thumbsup:
 
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#37
Zoffy said:
Hi Bassville Pete,
Good to see you and the new bass are getting along. Keep practicing and studying; a year from now a lot of the things you are working on now will be second-nature, to be replaced by other new stuff to work on! :woot: I'm currently trying to wrap my head around some music theory stuff as well, but half the fun is learning and growing as a musician.
Happy Holidays!:thumbsup:
Click to expand...

thanks Zoffy
It kind of brings back the day when I took lessons learning out of the Mel Bay Book 1 for guitar. It taught me the discipline to read music, but when I picked up the guitar years later, I just ended up toying around on it with no direction. But I did find my comfort zone and that was writing songs.
I'm now using what I said to myself about writing songs. And that is , don't start another song till I finish the one I'm working on. I've kept that promise to myself all these years too. ( of course, we do go back and do some rewrites ) I'm going to keep that with my first bass song also which is " Day Tripper " , but after that I must tackle one or two songs at a time. At least that is my plan.
Would you believe Hokkaido had 3 feet of snow yesterday. If you live on the west coast ( USA ) I think in 2 or 3 days you guys are going to get blasted heavily. Stock up on food and get your generator ready.
Stay safe and Happy Holidays to you and everyone else here.
 
#38
bassville pete said:
So is this still called a " chord triad " ?

I thought a chord triad uses 3 different notes?
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The "Tri" in Triad means 3. the "Di" in Diad means 2. You are correct that a Triad is 3 notes. A Diad, on the other hand is general term meaning a chord of 2 notes. A "power chord" whether on bass or guitar is a Diad using the root and the 5th. The Diad using the 5th is usually charted using the root note with the number 5 after it. For instance a C power chord would be charted as a C5 chord and would be the C+G notes played together. A D5 would be D+A. Diads are not necessarily power chords, but power chords are all root+5th Diads.

The main reason that Power chords came about was that distortion became popular to use on guitars. If you look back in the late 60's and into the 80's you'll see groups playing normal, easily identifiable barre chords. But when you add distortion to a 6-note chord it can get to be a pretty messy sound. Whereas playing with fewer strings still gets the feeling of a major chord and distortion makes playing those diad chords sound full and powerful, hence - "power chords".

Bass chords on the other hand were never 6 notes because it only had 4 strings and if you play very many strings particularly low on the neck, it can get muddy pretty quickly. That's why you usually see folks playing chords on their basses up around the 12th fret. It's easier for the human ear to hear and distinguish individual notes up there than it is down around and below the 5th fret. Lo and Behold....Diads work for bass chords too and can be played lower on the neck without sounding like rumbling mush. They can be played on the bass to add some extra body to the sound.

Diads can also be octaves and probably one of the most proficie nt and well known bassists who uses them all the time is John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin. For instance on "Whole Lotta Love", when he's riding on the E, he plays it on the 7th fret of the A string as well as playing the low E on the open E string. Play either note by itself and the song just doesn't sound right, even though he's just playing two notes an octave apart. Play them together and you get a "yeah, there it is!" kind of feeling.
 
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#39
warrplayer said:
Two notes sounded together are usually referred to as a double stop. I can’t remember anyone ever saying, “Play a dyad here” , but I don’t keep real sophisticated company.
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You call it a "double stop" on an instrument where you actually "stop" the string to play a note there, like a bass or guitar. On a piano or harp, you don't "stop" the notes.(*) "Dyad" is a generic name.

Note that it is frequent, in comping, to reduce a 7th chord to the 3rd and 7th, which are the important notes conveying the quality of the chord. In my understanding, this should not be called a "dyad" because the absent notes are implied, so that it is still a tetrad. On the other hand, it is still appropriate to call this a "double stop" on bass, because this refers to how it is actually played, independently of the harmonic content.

(*) NB. One would have to mutilate a pianist to have him/her playing a "chord" with only 2 notes (LoL), so they are unlikely to play dyads anyway.
 
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