A few weeks ago, a friend of mine who is just starting her guitar journey asked me a question.
She was having trouble playing an F chord cleanly. And if you know anything about guitar, you know that an F chord requires barring — either partial or full. This isn’t the easiest technique for a beginner, and it usually takes a while before it “clicks.” I told her as much but suggested that until then, she could just use a triad. I showed her how easy it was and sent her on her way.
Triads: the ultimate cheat code
If there is anything that I feel took my playing from beginner to intermediate level (whatever those concepts might mean to you), it has to be triads.
If you aren’t familiar with them, the very concept might seem daunting. What the heck is a triad? you might ask. I could never play something that sounds so…terrifying!
In actuality, they are easy to learn and incorporate into your playing, and they open up a myriad of fresh, new ways to play chord progressions.
Cowboy chords: the basics of guitar
Everyone learns the basic open chords when they first start playing the guitar. You know the ones: G, C, D, Em. They are played on just the first few frets to allow you to have open strings form part of the chord, which makes them easy to play. They are often called “cowboy chords,” presumably because cowboys are known more for their singing than their guitar prowess.
But what if I told you that if you know your basic chords, you have all you need to start using triads? Well, I am telling you that, because it’s true.
Understanding triads
Triads might sound complicated, but in reality, they are very simple. “Tri-“ just means three, after all.
Triads, therefore, are nothing more than three-note chords. That’s it.
They usually comprise the root, third, and fifth of a chord, since those are the three notes that define (most) chords. A triad, essentially, is the most basic chord you can possibly play. And that’s part of what makes them so easy to learn.
The other reason they are so easy to incorporate into your playing is they are embedded in the open chords you already know.
Take, for example, the aforementioned F chord, which we can represent as:
x-x-3-2-1-1
This notation means you press the top four strings on the third, second, first, and first fret respectively and strum them (the x’s represent the two bottom strings, which you don’t play). So how can we make this into a triad shape?
Easy: by choosing the root, third, and fifth. In this case, that becomes:
x-x-3-2-1-x
You can easily make this shape by using your first, second, and third fingers. But you’ll notice we’re only playing the strings we have fretted — the rest are not played (the x’s). This makes the triad shape moveable, which is why it’s so handy.
How to move triad shapes
You can move this F triad shape anywhere up and down the fretboard, and it will make a major chord. Move the whole shape up two frets:
x-x-5-4-3-x
and you’ve discovered a G triad. Play it starting at the eighth fret:
x-x-10-9-8-x
and you’ve got yourself a C triad. And on it goes.
This holds true with every triad shape, of which there are a number. One shape, however, you are almost guaranteed to already know is the D triad. This is because the regular D chord is played like this:
x-x-0-3-2-3
Forming the triad shape is as simple as not playing the fourth string:
x-x-x-3-2-3
This triad can be moved up the neck exactly like the F triad. For instance:
x-x-x-7-8-7
makes a G triad, while the following:
x-x-x-4-5-4
is an E triad.
I’ve included a simple list of the main triad shapes below, and you should be able to see 1) how simple they are, and 2) how they are mostly formed from parts of chords you probably already know.
Using triads in chord progressions and songs
Imagine you are playing a song that has a long crescendo, or buildup, to the most intense part. Let’s say for the purposes of demonstration that you, the guitar player, need to keep strumming a D chord during the buildup. You could just strum the regular, open D chord and just gradually get louder. Or you could use triads to increase in pitch as the song builds. For example, you could start with:
x-x-7-7-7-x (which you can make by just putting your index finger down in a straight line across those strings — see the picture below)
and then move up to:
x-x-12-11-10-x
and then finally reach your peak at:
x-x-x-14-15-14.
Each of these is a D chord, but each one is higher in voicing than the last, which helps add to the anticipation building in the song.
You will also often find if you start using triads that they can make for very easy chord changes. Let’s take a song in C this time. If you play:
x-x-5-5-5-x
that’s one option for a C triad. But if the chord changes to an F (which is very likely at some point), you can play:
x-x-7-5-6-x
which is an F triad, without moving your position on the neck at all. Am — another oft-played chord in the key of C — is just as easy:
x-x-7-5-5-x
To round out the song, a G triad is just two frets away, at:
x-x-9-7-8-x
While all of this may look like a jumbled mess of x’s and letters, once you begin experimenting with a guitar in your hands you should be able to see how it all fits together.
Beauty in simplicity
The beauty of triads is in their simplicity. You can find triad shapes and move them all around the fretboard, because again — you’re only playing the fretted strings; there are no open notes to ring out and foul things up. You can choose to focus on different voicings depending on the song or even your mood. And you can incorporate new sonic elements to any song beyond strumming basic chords.
I hope this was a helpful tutorial for you if you’ve never encountered triads before. They are among the most useful guitar techniques to learn, and they are very simple to understand and apply if you have even a modest amount of guitar knowledge.
I’d love to hear your “guitar hacks” — the simple things that make a big difference. Let us know in the comments!
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