Diad. The word itself sounds useless, and for years the humble diad has played second fiddle to its big brother, the triad. But as we will learn, the diad can help fatten and sweeten up our sound without swamping the mix with unnecessary chord tones. Whee!
So, what is a diad? Well, a diad is simply two different notes played together, like a little chord if you like. Play three different notes together and you have a triad. They're just names, and good ways to impress people down the pub. So, when the average rock guitarist thinks of a diad, they're probably thinking along these lines:
|-----------|------------|-----------|
|-----------|------------|-----------|
|-----------|------------|---5-------|
|--5----2---|---7----5---|--------9--|
|--3----2---|---8----5---|---3----7--|
|-------0---|------------|--------0--|
The first example (Ex.1) shows a C power chord followed by an E power chord. The power
chord is undoubtedly the most common 'chord' found in rock/metal music today, there are probably three main reasons for this:
- Sounds good even with loads of distortion
- Easy to play at fast speeds
- Ambiguous tonality - allows 'evil' or atonal progressions to sound cool.
When I say ambiguous tonality, I mean the 'chord' is neither major nor minor. Anyway, you're probably familiar with the standard power chord, so that's all I'll say about that!
Diad thirds and fourths
Ex. 2
|------------|
|------------|
|------------|
|---7----5---|
|---8----5---|
|------------|
Our second example shows two other common diads, the first is a major third
(F and A) and the second is a perfect fourth (D and G). If these terms are confusing, have a look at the glossary and come back! These diads are pretty useful, the major/minor third implies harmony, which sounds pretty cool (but don't over do it). The perfect fourth can often be used when you don't want the rigidity of 'standard' harmony (i.e. based on thirds), but you're sick to death of power chords.
Alternatively, if you invert the perfect fourth interval (i.e. think of the second note as the tonal root), you get a fifth, so you've essentially got a different way to play a power chord. In our example we treat the G as the root and wham! we've got us a G power chord! This type of fifth chord can be pretty useful when playing riffs at speed. Got all that?! Good...
To help you all 'get' this, here's a harmonised minor scale. Play this a few times - you'll love it (it's a way of life...):
|--------------------------|
|--------------------------|
|--------------------------|
|---0--2--3--5--7--9--10---|
|---2--3--5--7--8--10-12---|
|--------------------------|
Octaves
Ex. 3
|---------------------|
|---------------------|
|----5--------9-------|
|---------------------|
|----3--------7-------|
|-------------0-------|
These aren't strictly diads, but who cares? They're octaves, i.e. the same note played at different pitches. These are ideal when you've got a single note idea (like a melody or a fill or something) but you want to beef up your sound a bit. This is the 'purest' interval if you like, so it really cuts through the mix. Some good examples of this are Faith No More's 'Epic' during the solo, Machine Head's 'Old' during the main riff and a slightly different way of using it is Smashing Pumpkin's 'Cherub Rock' during the intro.
All the diads on this page are staples of the rock guitar playing, so you should all get used to playing and hearing them. You can make up a million riffs using these ideas and I suggest you attempt to! A good way to practice would be to sit down for an hour (or two or three) and jam using a particular diad idea. The easiest to start with (and possibly the most fun) are the major/minor third diads - see how many Iron Maiden riffs you end up playing!
So, after you've mastered that you can safely enter a whole new realm of diad...
Diads Part II - Open your mind
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