For the time being, I’m going to take a little break from writing about triads. This lesson is going to be about a great major scale exercise that I think is really helpful in opening up how you see the guitar neck. This was shown to me by the great New York guitarist Sheryl Bailey during my first semester at Berklee when I took guitar lessons with her. I take no credit for inventing it, but it helped me a great deal, so I thought I’d pass it on.
The General Idea
The idea of this exercise is to play through all 12 major scales in one single position on the guitar. It can be kind of tricky and take some time and brain work to see all of the scales in one single position, but it is well worth it. Like I said above, it can really open up how you see the guitar neck by making you familiar with lots of fingerings for the major scale that you may have not played before. Also, doing this exercise thoroughly in several positions will greatly expand your ability to see the relationships between notes of the major scale.
A good way to make sure that you go through all 12 keys is to go through the cycle of fourths, which simply means that for each new key, you go up the interval of a fourth to choose the next key you will play. It’s called a circle because by going through the keys this way, you will eventually come back to the one that you started on.
If you’re unfamiliar with the circle of fourths, an example of the order of keys if you were starting on G would be: G, C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, B, E, A, D. You can start anywhere in this sequence of notes and the order will be the same.
So, How Should I Do This?
A good place to start would be the 2nd position. This way you are low on the guitar, but can stretch to the first fret and won’t have to use open strings. What you are going to do is play up and down each major scale from the lowest note you can reach without leaving the position to the highest note you can reach without leaving the position. Since you are starting on the lowest and ending on the highest notes in the position you’re in, you are almost never going to be starting or ending on the root note of the scale.
When doing this exercise, figure out the notes of each scale in the position with whatever method makes the most sense to you. You could think of the note names that are in each major scale, the number of each note in the major scale, or even the sound of the notes compared to the sound of fingerings you may already know for the major scale. Again, this can take a while no matter how you figure out the notes of each scale. But, as you do it over and over, patterns will emerge and you will gradually start to see the scales much easier. I promise!
Go Slow, Don’t Write Anything Down!
I recommend not writing down the fingerings as you figure them out. The way I did it was simply to start at the beginning, in the second position I started in the key of G, and just refigure each scale out in that position every day. By doing this repetition each day of going through each scale, you will really learn and internalize the fingerings rather than figuring out a bunch of fingerings and then just memorizing them from a piece of paper.
Just go very slowly, making sure that you are playing the right notes for each scale. Don’t even worry about learning the fingerings, trying to make it fluid, etc. If you just repeat the exercise each day, you will learn the patterns and it will get easier and easier to play.
Examples
Here are some examples to get you started. These are fingerings for the first three keys in the cycle of fourths starting on the note G. Remember, though, try to figure all of these fingerings out on your own. Just use these examples as a guide so you are clear on how to do the exercise.
The G major scale starting at the 2nd position
The C major scale starting at the 2nd position
The F major scale starting at the 2nd position
After you’re able to do it somewhat fluidly in the 2nd position, you move up to the 3rd, and then to the 4th, and then the 5th, and…you get the idea! It will get easier with each position because many of the patterns will repeat themselves in different areas of the guitar.
I hope you enjoy working on this exercise! It can be a bit of a brain-teaser, but is also a lot of fun. And, again, will be very helpful. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. And, if you’re in the area and are interested in guitar lessons in Chicago, check out Village Guitar Studio!
It’s time for another installment in the triad guitar lessons I’ve been posting. While after this lesson I may move on to other topics and return to triads a little later, I wanted to post a lesson dealing the major triads on strings 1-3. If you’re just tuning in, here is where you can find part 1 of the triad guitar lessons, which covers major triads on strings 2-4, as well as the basic idea and construction of triads. And, here you can find part 2 of the triad guitar lesson, which covers using the triads on strings 2-4 to be able to play a standard I-IV-V chord progression.
Triad Voicings on Strings 1-3
Now, we’re going to look at the voicings for a C major triad on strings 1-3. If you need a little background on triads, including how they are constructed and the meaning of root position, 1st inversion, and 2nd inversion, that’s all covered in part 1 of the lesson that I linked to above. Other than the fact that we’re using a C chord rather than a G chord for this example, these chord shapes are exactly the same as the ones we learned on strings 2-4 in lesson 1. We’re just voicing the chords on a different set of strings. Let’s take a look at them.
C major triad and it's inversions on strings 1-3
Like I mentioned in the first lesson on triads, it’s important to know which note is which in terms of number for these triad voicings. Just to review, the notes in the 3 chord shapes go in this order:
To start using these chords, the first thing you will want to do is learn the C triad voicings above and play them up and down the neck until they’re very comfortable and familiar. Then, try playing other chords while using the same chord shapes.
Mixing Everything Up
In order to get these triads to be part of your chord vocabulary, you could go through the same process with them that we talked about for the triads on strings 2-4. That would be: learning the C triads, playing all of the inversions for the chords in a chord progression as an exercise, and finally mixing up the triad voicings to play a chord progression.
One thing I wanted to point out is that now that we have major triads on two different sets of strings, you can change string sets in a position. So, rather than just moving up and down the neck, you’re now able to move vertically as well. Below is an example of the the C major triads on both strings sets in different positions.
C major triads - mixing string sets 1-3 and 2-4 in various positions
I hope you’ve been enjoying the triad lessons so far! There’s still some other things to cover, such as: minor triads, spread voicing triads, songs that use triads, etc., etc. I’ll get to them eventually!
While this post isn’t really a full lesson, I just wanted to have a diagram up for the major scale because it will be referred to often in the lessons that I post. The major scale is important for its usefulness in playing and writing, as well as its importance in understanding music theory. First, learn the scale in the position I wrote it in, which is G Major. Once you have that, it’s good to also practice it starting on different frets of the guitar.
What are those numbers on top of the scale?
In music theory, the notes of the major scale are often referred to by number, rather than note name. One reason for this is that the relationship of the numbers to the major scale pattern remain the same no matter what major scale you are talking about, while the actual note names will change based on what note you are starting the scale on. The major scale has 7 different notes and the note you start on is 1, the second note is 2, and so on. Though in this fingering you’re actually playing 15 notes, it’s because you are actually playing the same 7 notes twice.
To see an example of the notes of the major scale being referred to by number, see my triad guitar lesson.
Ok, so, now that you’ve gotten familiar with the G triad and its inversions in my first guitar lesson on triads, we’re going to start talking about using the exact same chord voicings (major triads on strings 2-4) to play a chord progression. As an example, I will show you how to mix up the triad voicings to come up with some cool ways of playing a I-IV-V chord progression in the key of G. If you’re unfamiliar with the roman numeral system of numbering chords, that will be coming up in a future lesson! For right now, you just need to know that the chord progression will be: G-C-D.
By the way, in case you’ve come across this lesson from somewhere other than my website, you can find out more about me and my guitar lesson studio in Chicago here: Guitar Lessons Chicago.
Using the Triad Voicings to Play Other Chords
As I mentioned above we’re going to work on playing a G-C-D chord progression using the triad voicings that I introduced in the last lesson. First, let’s look at where all of the triads would be for those three chords. In the music below, I’ve written out all three voicings (root position + both inversions) going up and then down the guitar neck. For each chord, I started on the lowest inversion that you can play on the guitar. So, the C and D triads start on the 1st inversion. Play these chords up and down the neck until they are comfortable and familiar. Try using what we covered in the last lesson to be able to see where the individual notes are at in each inversion of each chord. Because there are 3 different options for each chord, it can be difficult to see where the inversions of each chord are on the guitar. Working on this exercise until it becomes easy to play and visualize will help with that and will get you ready for the next step, which will be using the triads to play the chord progression in a more musical way. Practice this until you’re able to play it smoothly and in time.
G, C, and D triads up and down the neck
Mixing it Up!
Once you feel comfortable playing up and down the voicings for each triad above, the next step is to be able to mix up the inversions freely. It will be most beneficial for you to explore these chords on your own and try to connect different triads while playing through a chord progression. To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, I’ve written an example of mixing up these triad voicings to play the chord progression G-C-D-C. As you’ll see, some of the chord voicings are an octave above what is written in the example above. Keep in mind that this is just an example to give you an idea of what’s possible. In addition to playing through it, make sure to experiment on your own with using these chords over this chord progression, or any other.
Example of mixing up the triad voicings
To Sum Up…
This second guitar lesson on triads concludes our study of the major triads on strings 2-4. Again, if you missed part 1 of the lesson, it can be found here: Triad Guitar Lesson Part 1. Try having fun with them and seeing what you can come up with. In upcoming lessons, we’ll go over the triads on strings 1-3, minor triads, some songs that use triads, and putting it all together.
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!
I play a lot of different kinds of music and one of the bands I perform with regularly in Chicago is The Jordan Years, a soul/funk/hip-hop group. Recently we’ve been working on a collaboration with the long-running Chicago comedy troupe Schadenfreude and calling it The City That Works. We had the opportunity to play at the great Chicago venue Martyrs’ as part of the TBS Just For Laughs Festival with Rhymefest as a special guest. Though I didn’t know who he was beforehand, he’s a hip-hop artist from Chicago who, among other things, has won a Grammy award for writing the Kanye West song “Jesus Walks.” I don’t play a ton in this clip, but still thought it’d be fun to post. Especially since I don’t have many video clips of myself playing!
If you’re interested in checking out The City That Works, we’ll be performing on July 8th at Lincoln Hall.
For those of you who’ve come to the blog from somewhere other than my main page, I just wanted to quickly mention that I teach guitar lessons in the Chicago area. Here is a link to more information about guitar lessons. If you live in the city and are interested in lessons definitely get in touch! I teach out of my home studio which is in the Ukrainian Village/Wicker Park area, as well as doing house call lessons to most areas. If you’re interested in lessons, or have any questions about me or my teaching, feel free to get in touch!
In my last blog post, I talked about how at my Chicago guitar lesson studio, students often ask which Pentatonic scales will work over a given chord progression. So, in that post, I talked about how to identify which Major and Minor Pentatonic scales you could use to solo in a key and how to find them on the guitar. Here is a link to part one of the guitar lesson. In this lesson, I’d like to go a bit further and talk about other choices for Pentatonic scales you could use for soloing while still remaining in the same key, and how to find these other scales on the guitar.
Two More Minor Pentatonic Scales That Will Work
In addition to the minor pentatonic scale usage above, you can also start a minor pentatonic scale on both the 2nd and 3rd degree of the key that you’re soloing in. Starting on the 2nd and 3rd ‘degree’ simply means starting the scale on the 2nd note or the 3rd note of the key’s major scale. So, if you’re in the key of G, you could use an A minor pentatonic (the 2nd degree), or a B minor pentatonic (the 3rd degree). This is in addition to the minor pentatonic usage above, which in the key of G would be an E minor pentatonic.
And, Yes, There’s Two More Major Pentatonic Scales That Will Work Too!
Remembering what we said about the major pentatonic/minor pentatonic scale relationship on the guitar, you could use the major pentatonic scale that is the same as each of these two minor scales. So, you could also use C major pentatonic, which is the exact same thing as A minor pentatonic, and D major pentatonic, which is the exact same thing as B minor pentatonic. This gives you a total of 3 minor pentatonic scales and 3 major pentatonic scales you could use. In the key of G, those scales would be: E, A, and B minor pentatonic and G, C, and D major pentatonic.
A Lot of Possibilities!
All of these possibilities will give you slightly different sounds, since each one will be using a different set of notes from the key that you are in, so try experimenting with them. What I would suggest is to make sure that you are comfortable with the Pentatonic scales from the first guitar lesson, before moving on to these ones. Make sure that you’re able to apply them to different keys and that you feel comfortable soloing with them. When you have that, then move on to working on soloing. These are not the only possibilities for the use of pentatonic scales, but are a good start!
Thanks for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the guitar lesson! I’m just getting started with this blog, so definitely bookmark me and check back regularly for more exciting guitar stuff!
At my studio, where I teach guitar lessons in chicago, I’ve had a lot of students who’ve told me that they mainly use pentatonic scales to solo, but weren’t always sure exactly which one to use. I thought that choosing the ‘correct’ major and minor pentatonic scale to solo over a song or a chord progression would be a good topic for an article.
Which Minor Pentatonic Scale Will Work?
Fingering for an A Minor Pentatonic Scale
Since it’s the more widely known of the two, let’s start with learning how to identify which minor pentatonic scale will work for soloing over a song or chord progression. I’m going to assume that you already know the key of the song or progression you want to solo over.
To identify the minor pentatonic scale that will work, you simply play the major scale starting on the note that is the key in which you want to solo and find the 6th note of the scale. Start a minor pentatonic scale on that note, and you have the scale that will work in that key. For example, if you are playing in the key of C Major, the sixth note of the C major scale would be A. So, an A minor pentatonic scale will work in the key of C. You can use any fingering you know for A minor pentatonic and it will work.
If you aren’t familiar with the major scale, there is another way to find the exact same note. All you have to do is locate the note that is the key of the song or progression on your guitar and then move down the neck three frets from that note. In the key of C, this will also bring you to the note A, which is the note that you start the minor pentatonic scale on to solo in the key of C. Either method will bring you to the same minor pentatonic scale.
Ok, I’ve got that. Now, Which Major Pentatonic Scale Will Work?
Fingering for A Major Pentatonic Scale
Next, let’s talk about how to find the major pentatonic scale you can use, as well as the relationship between the major and minor pentatonic scales. To solo in any given key, you can start a major pentatonic scale on the note that is the key of the song or progression and it will work. For example, in the key of C, you can use a C major pentatonic scale.
We already saw that you can use an A minor pentatonic scale to solo in the key of C. These two scales, C major pentatonic and A minor pentatonic, are actually made up of the exact same five notes! Each scale just starts on a different note. This type of relationship is called ‘relative.’ So, from the root note of a major pentatonic scale, to find its relative minor pentatonic scale, you go back three frets just like you would from the major scale, or you can play up the scale to it’s 5th note (since this is a 5-note major pentatonic scale, rather than a 7-note major scale it’s the 5th note, not the 6th).
If you are thinking in terms of a minor pentatonic scale, you can do the reverse and go up three frets from the scale’s root note to find its relative major pentatonic scale. What this means is that once you have identified both scales, you can use them both to solo in any given key. For example, in the key of C, you can use both C major pentatonic and A minor pentatonic. Or, in the key of G, you can use both G major pentatonic and E minor pentatonic.
With just these two scales, you can cover a large amount of the fretboard, especially if you know more than one fingering for each scale. I recommend learning two fingerings for each scale, one with the root on the 6th string and one with the root on the 5th string, and working toward combining all four fingerings together.
Hi everyone and thanks so much for taking a look at the website of my guitar lesson studio Village Guitar Studio. I very recently added a blog to the site and am working on learning how to use it. I hope to use this space to post anything related to guitar, including: lessons, articles, videos, etc.
Please check back to see what’s going on at the new blog, and feel free to get in touch if you’d like to contribute anything!
