Developing A Harmonic Image of Triads

Triads are the fundamental building blocks in diatonic harmony. (Read The Essences of Harmony.) You probably are familiar with triad arpeggios, but players always practice arpeggios as a melody.

Try this:

Sing a note.

From that note, sing a major triad arpeggio – three notes only.

Did sing the arpeggios starting on the root go up the triad (IE: F, A, C)?

Nine of ten saxophonists sing from the root position, starting on the root going up. That is how method books teach arpeggios. It is a melodic approach to learning arpeggios, which mainly develops basic finger technique.

Now try this:

Sing a different note.

Sing a major triad going down from the root (Root, 5th, 3rd).

Sing three notes, only.

How easy was it to sing down the arpeggio compared to singing up the arpeggio? For most players, it is easier to sing the arpeggio up even though they both started on the root of the chord. In addition to singing in a different direction, the second arpeggio was in the second inversion.

In addition to developing finger technique, singing in different directions with different inversions develops your harmonic understanding. To sing the arpeggio down, you must hear the bottom note, which helps develop the chord's harmonic image from any of its parts. Here is the notation showing all the possible major triad arpeggios built on the note "D". View Here

Also see these related articles:

The Essence of Harmony

Twelve Ways to Construct Arpeggios