I’ve been considering a guitar kit. I know there is already one that Phil did, I believe. But as I thought about it, the amazing value of triads hit me in the face. Herewith is the Music Theory lesson: A normal major triad, for example C E G, can be used in place of its relative minor 7th, in this case, Am7, since that is A C E G, and we can presume the bass would play the A. But it gets better. Minor triads rule. The E minor triad, E G B, will work for the Cmaj7, as Cmaj7th is C E G B, and again, we assume the bass helps us out. And obviously, these work all up down the 12 notes of the chromatic scale. Here’s where it gets cool. That same E G B, Em minor triad, can also substitute for C#m7b5. Yes, look at it. C#m7b5 is C# E G B. But wait, we got one more, it can also fill in for A9. A9 is A C# E G B. Yes, we won’t have the C#, unless its in the melody, but the sense of the chord will be there.
Diminished triads have their extra use, too. The Edim triad is E G Bb. What is that? Its everything above the root in C7, C E G Bb. Augmented triads aren’t quite as versatile, but they still have one substitution. They can fill in for the interesting minor with major 7th chord, i.e, Am(maj7). C augmented is C E G#. So we have Am(maj7) covered by a C Augmented.
What all this means, is that in the 3 octave plus the little extra we have above a standard midi drum kit, I can have a full set of major triads, minor triads, diminished triads, and augmented triads, and cover every minor 7th, major 7th, minor7b5, dominant minor, dominant 9th and minor(major 7th).
It’s amazing what pops into your head when you can’t sleep.