Triads in Practice
Unlock fluid harmony across your instrument using the fundamental building blocks of music. Learn to connect chords smoothly, build lush open textures, and use triadic structures to color your improvisations.
Like Duolingo, but for Triads in Practice. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
24 levels across 3 sections, about 48 minutes end to end, roughly 10 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Smooth Motion and Voice Leading, Expanding Space and Harmonic Flavor, and Modern Applications and Upper Structures. It assumes you already know the basics.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Triads in Practice
- Voice leading favors moving chord voices by the smallest step rather than shifting the whole grip.
- Moving entire triad shapes up and down the neck causes abrupt melodic jumps.
- Smooth triad connections keep common tones and step adjacent voices.
- Inverting a triad shuffles internal intervals while maintaining its harmonic identity.
- First inversion triads place the third in the bass beneath a fourth.
- Second inversion triads place the fourth at the bottom beneath a third.
- Holding common tones static anchors the harmony while moving voices step.
- Triads separated by a third share two common tones that can freeze in place.
- Freezing shared triad notes minimizes physical movement across chords.
- Moving all triad voices in parallel creates a blocky, abrupt transition.
- Contrary motion moves upper triad voices against the bass line for smoother balance.
- Opposing direction between bass and triad voices creates independent melodic lines.
- Eliminating doubled octave notes clears mud and clarifies harmonic intent.
- Three distinct voices leave sonic space for other instruments and melodies.
- Three-note triads make stepwise connection easier by freeing up hand movement.
- The root of the I triad remains stationary as the common tone fifth of IV
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Triads in Practice the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
What happens musically when you slide an entire triad shape up or down the neck to reach the next chord?
Get it right to open this lesson and 23 more in the app.
Where Triads in Practice takes you
- 1
Smooth Motion and Voice Leading
- Connecting Triads Without Leaping
- Navigating the Essential Cadences
- Sculpting Basslines with Inversions
- 2
Expanding Space and Harmonic Flavor
- Opening Up Close Voicings
- Diminished, Augmented, and Suspended Triads
- 3
Modern Applications and Upper Structures
- Harmonizing Melodies with Triads
- Triadic Superimposition and Upper Structures
- Linear Improvisation with Triad Pairs
3 sections · 8 units · 24 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
Triads in Practice is taught in the Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Triads in Practice today.
Download Tomo, search Triads in Practice, and play your first lesson in under a minute.