aural tests

[marina]

got my grade 7 exam next week! any tips on recognising triads?

[nanabush]

RCM I'm guessing?  Are you doing major, minor, dominant, diminished?  Or am I completely mistaken, and your following the ABRSM or w/e.

[marina]

nothing so grand - ameb (australian) major and minor triads root, first second inversions

[futureconcertpianist]

Hello,
usually it is very easy to tell the difference between Major and Minor triads, the major gives a happy sound and the minor gives a sad sound if you had to compare them expressively.
The inversions are a little more difficult but once you understand it is quite easy.
You must remember that ear training (when it comes to relations and not actually naming notes with perfect pitch) is actually mind training, your ear hears the sound and then the mind sorts the sound out.
So to be good at triads you need to be good at your intervals.
You need to be able to sing and recognize effortlessly all your intervals in an octave especially minor and major 3rd and perfect 4th.
If you can sing it then recognizing it when heard will be easy.
Now the key with telling the position of a major or minor triad is simple, be able to sing from top to bottom the notes of the chord, at first with your voice, then with your mind.
You will find that with your mind if you really listen to a certain note in the triad it actually seems to become louder, then you can switch down to the lower note and hear that louder excetra, it is quite amazing this illusion.
In the exam you will need to listen to the notes of the triad separately by mentally tuning into each note from top to bottom using the focus of the mind, which is very easy once you get the hang of it.
And with your ability to tell the intervals easily, all you now have to do is figure out if there is a perfect 4th in the chord, if there is no perfect 4th then instantly you will know it is a root position, if if the perfect 4th is at the top of the chord then it is a 1st inversion, if it is at the bottom of the chord it is a 2nd inversion.
Its as simple as that.
So once all the above becomes fluent, all you have to do in the exam is first just listen to the chord by focusing on the notes from top to bottom and listening to the intervals, that way you can easily tell the position of the chord, then all that is left to do is to tell wether it is major or minor which is easy.
FCP

PS that is all under the heading of mind training, actual ear training is just listening to the notes and the chords as deeply as you can with all the awareness you have (this is unlimited and can be developed further no matter how good your ear) being very relaxed even with eyes closed. With good experience in this sort of ear training you will start to be able to recognize notes and develop perfect pitch. This sort of ear training is rare in conservatoriums.