These ear-training exercises will help you tell apart the most common triads: major, minor, augmented, and diminished chords. The full playlist is available on my Patreon for 1$ with audio downloads, but will gradually be made available on this channel for free. See below for links and a listener's guide.

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It can be easy to get overwhelmed when it comes to chords. But here's the thing: most chords you hear will probably be major, followed by minor in a close 2nd. If you can tell those apart, then you've got a valuable skill. Augmented triads are relatively uncommon except in jazz, and diminished triads are almost unheard of because they are usually fully fleshed out as a 7th chord. However, being able to hear these 4 triads is still a useful skill because they form the foundation of just about every other chord.

Major Chord - Begins with a major 3rd and then ascends up to a perfect 5th above the root. Major = Happy is a huge oversimplification. Instead, I call major chords "bright."

Minor Chord - Begins with a minor 3rd and then ascends up to a perfect 5th above the root. Again, Minor does not equal "sad". Think Minor = Dark.

Augmented Chord - Two consecutive major 3rds. The root up to the sharp 5th is an augmented 5th (same as a minor 6th). This is known as a linear chord because it is the same interval stacked continuously. You sometimes see the V chord in a song substituted as an augmented chord, especially in minor keys. You also sometimes see the 5th note in a major I chord crawl up to sharp 5, forming an augmented chord, which then crawls up again to a 6, forming a minor chord. I

Diminished Chord - Two consecutive minor 3rds. The root up to the flat 5th is a tritone (also known as a diminished 5th or augmented 4th.) This is known as a linear chord because it is the same interval stacked continuously. Diminished chords hold a lot of tension because every note usually wants to resolve.

I use the scale method to tell chords apart. If you can sing the first 5 notes of a major scale up and down the chord, it's a major chord. If you can sing the minor scale, it's a minor chord. If you can sing the whole tone scale (all whole steps/ major 2nds), it's an augmented chord. If it's hard to sing a scale, then it's diminished. The octatonic scale works over the diminished chord, which is alternating whole and half steps, but I find this one very unnatural to sing.

Thanks to @BrandonWalid, Martin Shaw, Tóth Ákos, Austin Kwan, George Ndifreke, and Rafael Belor for proof-watching this video.

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