Section 4.2: Diatonic Chords

Generally, in a section of music, musicians will restrict themselves to the chords consisting solely of notes from a particular scale — diatonic chords.

For example, let's take the C Major scale, which consists of the notes: C, D, E, F, G, A, B. Any combination of two or more of these notes is a diatonic chord of the C Major scale.

One example of a diatonic triad in the C Major scale is G Major, which has a root note of G (the 5th note in the C Major scale) and consists of the notes G, B, D, all of which are in the C Major scale: