You may have heard the term triad before, but have you ever stopped to wonder what it actually means? Put simply, a triad is a three-note chord; it is the most basic form of harmony we use in music. They can be organized into one of four families, which we know are:
Major,
minor,
diminished,
augmented.
For the purposes of this blog post, we will only be looking at the major and minor shapes as well as only on the G, B and E strings. Let us get stuck in!
There are a plethora of ways we can use triads, some of which we will learn about a bit later on, but be warned, triads are a lot like the blues - easy to learn, impossible to master. Not only do we have the triads in their original root position, but we also have inversions. An inversion is where we take the lowest note and play it an octave higher (see below for some tables helping you understand this visually). Given that a triad has only three notes, we can only have two inversions before the original shape returns but with all of the notes an octave higher than we originally started.
See these tables for how inversions work!
This first table shows you the intervals in the chord and the notes in the C Major chord (CEG) - we call this the root inversion/position:
Next we have the first inversion. Notice how the C note is now in the column to the right (also highlighted in green):
Finally, we have the second inversion. Now the C note (still highlighted in green) has been shifted to the middle because the E note has moved up an octave:
That brings us full-circle, but you might find that sometimes these chords are written as C/E - you would say “C over E” for this chord, but it can be understood as a first inversion of C Major, as the lowest note you are playing at that moment is an E note, but the rest of the chords indicate C Major.
Uses
Having a good working knowledge of every triad, and their associated inversions, seems like an insurmountable task to begin with. However, due to the nature of how notes are laid out on the neck of the guitar, we can simply move the shapes around providing we know what notes we are aiming for.
You can use the chords and shapes for creating interesting rhythm guitar parts that sound a little more thought out, or creating new/additional parts to fit with another guitar player. Many accomplished players that excel with playing melodies and solos inadvertently use triads, either by themselves or as they pass through different scales shapes. One other use that I have found for understanding triads is applying them, at least in a rudimentary fashion, to the piano. I do not consider myself a piano player by any stretch of the imagination, but it helps fill out the sound in my recordings.
A task I like to get students to do when learning this, is to play a simple chord progression (like a I - V - vi - IV) high up on the neck, and keeping all the chords within five or six frets of where they started. You can do this with any song, and the result may be good or bad, but it will help improve your skills in this area.
In this picture above, you can see all of the shapes for C Major on the G, B and E strings. Notice how I have labeled the C note in each shape - to find your way around different chords quickly, I recommend memorizing both the shape and the location of the root note within that shape. That way, when you are moving from one chord to another, you can see where the closest root note is (on any of those strings) and change to the inversion that supports it. Use the Am shapes below to help you, and Fig. 1 below that for an example of the process with a I - V - vi - IV progression in the key of C.
Fig1
Before I explore the process explained above a little more, let me preface the next section by saying that you do not have to memorize every note in every chord - it helps but is not necessary. The only note that you can absolutely know for sure is in the chord is the root note (there is always a C in C Major, or an F# in F#m).
In Fig. 1, I randomly chose a first inversion of C (sometimes called C/E) - this means that the C note is on the first fret. The closest G, on either the G, B or E strings, to the shape I am already playing is in the C first inversion anyway, but on the B string eighth fret. With the root (now G) on the B string, we need to change to a second inversion (sometimes called the D shape). The nearest A note to this shape is two frets higher, so the same shape but the minor version of this triad. Finally, we move to a root position of the tenth fret of G for the F chord. Try this out in different keys too!
I think it goes without saying that you should definitely be trying to learn the notes on your strings!
Notable Players
One of my favorite proponents of this method is the great Tomo Fujita, guitar legend and professor at Berklee College of Music. He often preaches the importance of this, which fits well with my students as I always have extra material to send to them if needed!
Watch this cool video linked below, where you can see him tackle the famous hit by The Eagles ‘Hotel California’ - he does this with only triads and inversions.
Tomo Fujita - Hotel California
On the subject of this great song, let us take a second to talk about The Eagles. Whilst the original rhythm guitar part was not played as Tomo does above, the famous descending guitar part at the end does use triads and inversions - check out my YouTube short clip of it below:
Wes Montgomery - Four On Six
Whilst not a strict part of his skillset, the great Wes Montgomery was known to have been mostly self-taught, letting his ears guide the way. Often he uses triads and inversion to superimpose (a fancy musical term meaning to imply) the sounds of other chords over the section he is playing - this is quite advanced though!
Final Thoughts
Everything we have covered today should start you off on a great path. There is always something any guitarist can do to improve their skills in this area, and there is no excuse for giving it a go.
Once you have become really comfortable with the G, B and E strings, you can then start to explore the other string sets too. Keep an eye out for blog posts on this in the future, and one where things really get spicy! To tide you over for now, check out this cool YouTube short that I created below:
If you need some extra help with these, either to grasp the initial concept or to push the concept even further pertaining to your own needs, get in touch with one of the amazing teachers at the American Guitar Academy, they are sure to help you out!
Until next time… keeping rocking!
Alex
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