As musicians, one of the most valuable skills we can develop is the ability to recognize chords by ear. It’s a skill that not only enhances our musicality but also deepens our connection to the music we play and listen to. That’s why I’m excited to introduce a new 3-part YouTube series dedicated to helping you master the recognition of major and minor triads.

In this series, we dive into a powerful exercise called the pivot exercise, designed to help you internalize the sound of six major and minor triads that contain the tonic note do. This exercise is a game-changer for anyone looking to improve their chord recognition skills.

The first video in the series is all about laying the foundation. I’ll guide you through the pivot exercise, explaining how it works and teaching you a melody pattern that’s key to the process. This pattern is specially composed to tune your ear to recognize how any given tone fits into a chord. We focus on chords containing the note E, training your ear to hear E as the tonic (_do_), whether it serves as the root, third, or fifth of the chord.

Once you’ve got the basics down, it’s time to practice. The second video is a listening exercise where you’ll hear each chord three times at a slow tempo (60 BPM) before the answer is revealed. This step is crucial for building confidence and accuracy in your chord recognition.

Finally, in the third video, we step up the difficulty. You’ll hear each chord only once before the reveal, and the tempo is faster. This is where your skills will be truly tested, and by the end, you’ll find that recognizing chords in real-time has become second nature.