This post is going to be the first in a series of guitar lessons about the triad chord family. Triads are awesome! When I’m teaching guitar lessons at my studio in Chicago, I like to teach them to students after they are familiar with open chords and barre chords. I like them because they give a smaller-voicing alternative to playing major and minor chords, and also because learning them can really open up how you see the guitar neck. Here we go!

What are Triads?
Let’s start by getting a basic understanding of what triads are. A triad is a major or minor chord made up of only three notes. Every major or minor chord is actually only made of 3 different notes. In standard open chord and barre chord shapes, though, some of the notes are doubled. When people refer to the triad chord voicings, they are usually refering to a voicing where you only play the 3 notes without doubling any of them.

There are 3 Notes in a Chord?
Yes, major and minor chords are made up of 3 different notes. While I will be doing a more in-depth posting on this in the near future, here’s a quick explanation. Any major chord is made up of three notes from the major scale that starts on the same note as the root note of that chord. For example, a G major chord is made up of 3 notes from the G major scale. Those notes are the 1st note, the 3rd note, and the 5th note of the scale. Therefore, you would say a major chord = 1, 3, 5. A minor chord is also made up of 3 notes. They are the same 3 notes with one alteration: the 3rd is flatted (b), which means that it is lowered one half-step. So, you would say a minor chord = 1, b3, 5.

Root Note and Inversions
There’s just two more ideas that you need to be familiar with before we actually play the chords. First, if you don’t already, you need to understand what the root note of a chord is. It’s actually very simple. The root note is just the single note that gives the chord it’s name. For example, the root note of a G major chord is G. The root note of a G minor chord is G. The root note of a G7#9b13 chord is G. In the 1, 3, 5 formula presented above, the root note is 1. Many chord voicings that we play on the guitar have the root note as the lowest note, or as the bass note, as it’s sometimes called. But, a chord that has a note other than the root note as its lowest note is called an inversion. For example, if you play a G chord but play the 3rd as the lowest note rather than the root, that would be an inversion of a G chord.

Let’s Play Some Triads!
Now, we’re going to play a G major triad, as well as it’s inversions. Because there are three different notes in a triad (1, 3, 5), there are two possible inversions. When you play a triad, or any chord, with the root note as the bass note, that is called root position. That is the first chord written below. The order of notes in this chord is: 1-3-5. The second chord is called the first inversion. Rather than starting on 1, the first inversion chord starts on 3. The complete chord is: 3-5-1. The last chord is called the second inversion. The second inversion chord starts on the 5th. The complete second inversion chord is: 5-1-3.

Here they are:

G Major Triad and its Inversions on Strings 2-4

What to Practice
The first step in learning and being able to use triads is to play the voicings above up and down the guitar neck until they become comfortable and you’re able to see the shapes easily. By doing this, you’ll most likely memorize the shapes without even trying. But, if not, spend some time trying to commit them to memory. Also, when you are playing them, try to learn the number of each note in each voicing. For example, you want to know that in the first chord, the note on the D string is 1, the note on the G string is 3, and the note on the B string is 5. Try to be able to see the number of each note in all three of the inversions. Once you are familiar with the G inversions above, you can try playing different major chords using the same voicings. For example, if you wanted to play a different chord with the root position triad, you would play the chord shape so that the root note of the chord you want to play is on the D string. To play a different chord using the first inversion, you would play the first inversion chord shape and find the root note of the chord that you are trying to play on the B string, since the order of that chord is 3-5-1. You should work on this until it becomes easy to play any major chords with these shapes.

Coming Up…
This lesson is just the first installment in a series of lessons on triads. Next, we will learn the same three triad voicings on strings 1-3. Also, we’ll talk specifically about using the triad shapes to play chord progressions and I’ll give you some examples. In addition, I’ll provide some examples of songs that use triads so that you can see them in action. It may take some time to get the triads to be a part of your chord vocabulary, but sticking with it will definitely pay off!

I hope you found this first lesson helpful! Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Also, if you’re in the area and are interested in guitar lessons in Chicago, let me know!