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Harmony

Harmony is created when we perform two or more pitches at the same time. The term harmony also refers to chords in music and how those chords work together.
A chord consists of three or more pitches played at the same time. The most common and most basic chord is the triad. Triads are chords made of three pitches, and they can be major, minor, diminished, or augmented.

We can identify the correct pitches of a triad by using scaled degrees and whole steps and half steps, just like we did for major and minor scales. For a review of half steps and whole steps, visit that page in the section on Melody.

The triads have the following patterns of whole steps and half steps:

Major: W W H W
Minor: W H W W
Diminished: W H W H
Augmented: W W W W

Major triads
Minor triads
Diminished triads
Augmented triads
Summary of triads
Diatonic Chords, the Major Harmonic System, and Roman Numerals