THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO GUITAR TRIADS

0:00 There are 12 triad shapes you need to learn across the fretboard, and these can be broken down into four zones or string sets. This means you only have to learn three simple shapes per zone to memorize them all and start using triads straight away. Triads are three note chords that can be used to play progressions in a variety of ways. This will benefit your rhythm playing considerably and help you when targeting chord tones in a solo, no matter where you are on the fretboard. A G major triad contains the notes G, B, and D. These being the first, third, and fifth notes of the G major scale. Each triad shape will contain these notes in different orders known as inversions. Let me walk you through the various kinds of inversions available. First of

0:45 all, let's start with a very simple G major triad. This contains the notes G, B, and D. These being the first, third, and fifth notes of the G major scale with the one often being referred to as the root note of the chord. If you were to play a G major triad in this order, 1 135, you would call this the root position, as no inversion has taken place yet, and the root is the lowest note in the chord. If you were to play this triad again, but this time play the root on top, giving us 3 51, this would be called the first inversion. And if we were to change this order once more by putting the third on top of the triad, giving us 5 1 3, this would be called a second inversion. You could take this

1:30 one step further and create a third inversion, which would occur when you have a four note chord, such as a G major 7 chord containing the intervals 1 3 5 and 7, but you would place the seventh at the bottom of the chord. You will have probably seen many examples of chord inversions before without realizing what they were. For example, slash chords which are often written like this G slashB indicating that this is a G major triad but with B as the lowest note and as B is the third of G. This would make a first inversion or perhaps G/ D indicating again that this is a G major triad but this time with a D as the lowest note and as D is the fifth of G this would make a second inversion. And of course, all of this

2:17 can be applied to minor triads in exactly the same way. To summarize, the position of the root note does not need to be placed at the bottom of the chord. As long as you have the main ingredients of a chord, in this case, a G, B, and D, you can throw them together in whatever order you choose, and they will still make the same G major triad. When to use one inversion over another is completely up to you and the musical context the chords happen to be in. Using one particular inversion over another might make a chord change sound smoother and less abrupt. This is because you're moving each of the notes less distance to arrive at the new chord. To begin learning each triad shape, we'll break the fretboard into four

3:02 string sets. 1 2 3 and four. Inside the first string set, we have three triad shapes. >> [music] >> String set two contains these three triad shapes. [music] String set three contains these three triad shapes. [music] And finally, string set four contains these three triad shapes. In total, this gives us only 12 shapes to learn. It's now your job to memorize each string set at a time and learn to shift between each triad shape without

3:49 hesitation. Focusing on one string set at a time will make this process more manageable and far more enjoyable. I have a poster containing all of these triad shapes on my merch store if you would like a quick reference chart to help memorize these triads. It's very important to know where the root note is located in each triad shape. In this case, the G note. Knowing the root note locations will help you to play these same triad shapes in different keys. For example, if we wanted to play an A major triad in all 12 locations, you could shift every triad up two frets. This works as an exercise when first learning each shape in different keys, but doesn't exactly help you use these triads in real time during a song or solo. In reality, the best approach is to pick any root note on the fretboard and simply attach a triad based on the

4:34 location of your chosen root note. If during a solo you wanted to target an A major triad, you would find the nearest A root note and then attach the [music] relevant triad. Let's say the selected A note was on the B string, 10th fret. You could use either this shape from string set one or this shape [music] from string set two. You could also target a triad much further away from [music] your current soloing position and use pentatonic scales as pathways to get from one triad to another. With this approach, it helps to view triads as destination points and scales as the roads that connect them. If there was a four chord progression such as A, E, F sharp minor to D, you could use the A major pentatonic [music] scale to solo over the entire

5:20 progression as these chords all belong to the key of A. However, blending in specific triads over each chord change will enable you to target notes within each chord. [music] The result will sound far more musical. This is known as chord tone targeting. A question you may have at this point is, what about other chord types such as minor chords? If you have watched my in-depth lesson on chord construction, then you will know that there are four triads major minor augmented and diminished. And the interval formula for each triad looks like this. The difference between a major triad and a minor triad is that the third has been flattened. Knowing this means you can simply lower the third by one fret in each major triad, which will now reveal all 12 minor triad shapes. You could apply the same logic to both the

6:06 diminished and augmented triads to reveal their corresponding triad shapes also. So far we have focused on triads in a soloing context, but triads can be a powerful tool for rhythm guitar. Also, in most situations when playing in a band, you will find using small three note voicings [music] will work better than more builtup chords. This will create space and leave much more room in the mix for other instruments such as keyboards, bass, a brass section, or even a second guitar. Knowing each of your triad shapes well will give you the ability to play any chord progression in different ways for better voice leading and variety within any given rhythm part. Take for example the chord progression G, D, E minor, and C. Here are several ways you could play this simple chord progression using only triads.

7:11 As you can see, mastering triads will drastically improve both your lead and rhythm skills. Head over to the Sam Jam Guitar Merch store to pick up a triad chart. Or if you want to learn how to solo across the entire fretboard using pentatonics, then click this video. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one.