Here’s a sample from my soon to be released e-book, Encyclopedia of Triad Pairs: A Playable Reference for the Improvising Musician. In this book I’ve organized major, minor, augmemted and diminished triads into what I define as “exclusive” triad pairs, meaning that there are no shared notes between the triads in each pair. Using these paramaters, I’ve come up with 20 different triad pair combinations.

With each triad pair, I’ve composed five different brief exercises. The first iteration (below) presents the triad pair in sequence starting in root position, then moving to its inversions:

As you can see from the example above, I’m combining a minor triad and a major triad that are a major 3rd apart (C minor with E major).

In the next iteration, I organize the notes of this triad pair in a linear manner, to form a six-note mode (which in this case happens to form an augmented scale):

Next, I demonstrate how that triad pair can be applied to a dominant 7th chord:

The fourth iteration uses the triad pair over the same dominant chord, but with chromatic (or otherwise non-chordal) passing tones to form what I call a four-note triad “cell”:

As you can see from the above example, I’ve added a Bb, then a D natural at the end of the triads in the first measure, and an F natural, then an A# at the end the triads in the second measure. This adds a slightly more “bebop language” quality to the triad pair.

In the final iteration I return to the unaltered triad pair, but this time apply it to a different dominant 7th chord:

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In the e-book itself, I put each of these five iterations from every triad pair into all 12 keys. In the downloadable pdf (below) I put a sample in one key, just to give you the concept of the book, as well as to give you something to play through and hear. I hope you enjoy! Click the link below for the pdf: