Why practice triads on piano?
Like playing scales, practicing with triads is essential for your growth as a piano player.
Practicing a variety of exercises with triads will increase dexterity between the fingers and the hands. You’ll also gain muscle memory in your fingers and hands that is necessary for your evolution and will undoubtedly propel you forward.
Playing exercises with triads shows you what positions are correct and how they feel. I always say, if it feels awkward, it’s probably wrong. When you use the correct finger numbers either for scales, chords or arpeggios, it feels good because the piano, more than any other instrument, was designed for your fingers. Every other instruments I’ve played requires the player's hands to contort in some way that isn't natural.
How to practice triads on piano.
In the video below, I show two intermediate exercises that will really get triads into your hands. These exercises get your fingers moving independently at the the same time, while gaining necessary muscle memory by playing the triads and their inversions up and down the keyboard.
These exercises are for those who already know the major and minor triads as well as their inversions.
Things to think about:
You MUST use the correct finger numbers. Using the right finger numbers consistently will help your muscles to remember the correct way to play triads (in this case) and the more you play the less you will need to look at your fingers. As you go on to play either improvisationaly or reading music, this will help you so much!
USE A METRONOME. Always use a metronome when you practice. But especially for this exercise. It’s so imperative if you want to be bad-ass player. Piano is as percussive of an instrument as it is melodic…so you MUST practice like a drummer.
 Start slow. it’s always better to play the right notes slowly than the wrong note’s fast as this will just hinder your growth. You're muscles will either remember the wrong positions or just get confused and remember nothing. So, GO SLOW.
THE EXERCISES
EXERCISE 1:
PLAY ARPEGGIOS UP AND DOWN KEYBOARD
- Â MAJOR AND MINOR TRIADS
START WITH HANDS SEPARATE AND THEN PLAY THEM TOGETHER
START WITH QUARTER NOTES, THEN EIGHTH. ONCE THIS IS EASY FOR YOU TRY 8TH NOTE TRIPLETS AND 16TH NOTES.
EXCERCISE 2:
PLAY MAJOR AND MINOR TRIADS IN INVERSIONS UP AND DOWN THE KEYBOARD. FIRST WITH HANDS SEPARATE THEN TOGETHER.
If you have any questions or comments either respond here or via my YouTube page. I'm so happy you are here and would love to help you!
Happy Playing,
XXOO
Lynn
