How to build a strong fretboard understanding 5/5 – Triads

Here you find the free resources for this lesson.

There, you’ll find the tabs for all triad types in C, played horizontally and vertically and some additional tools that you can print out and use in your guitar practice.

Download Free Ressources

Table of Contents

Just in case you have missed parts 1, 2 & 3:

Part One is on How to Build a Strong Fretboard Understanding 1/5 – Horizontal Diatonics. There, I show you a great exercise on how you can learn all the notes on the fretboard and simultaneously develop a good technique. Start there if you haven’t already. It’s the most important foundation you need for almost everything.

Part Two covers How to Build a Strong Fretboard Understanding 2/5 – Horizontal Intervals. You need to learn this before you start the exercises here, or at least I highly recommend it. In that part, you learn the intervals in a more tangible and visual way, so check that out as well.

Part three is How to Build a Strong Fretboard Understanding 3/5 – Vertical Intervals. In this part I show you a comprehensive method on how to play intervals vertically across the entire fretboard. I also explain the music theory of intervals in more depth.

Part four, How to build a strong fretboard understanding 4/5 – Scale Chunks, is really great because it gives you a completely new perspective on the entire topic of scales. It is very systematic and modular, so you can learn scales far more easily and methodically than you would with the typical scale diagram and box approach.

Learning triads is hard

Learning triads on the guitar can feel like solving a puzzle with an unknown number of pieces.

But, of course, there’s a finite number of pieces.

So, how can you effectively learn triads when there are well over 144 of them—not to mention the fact that each triad can be played in multiple positions across the fretboard?

How can you manage such an enormous amount of information?

Well, you need a system!

Because, without a system, it can feel like trying to solve a never-ending puzzle.

In this video, I’ll show you how I systematize the entire topic of triads in an easy and manageable way. By the end, you’ll have a big-picture overview of the topic and a clear roadmap for practicing it.

Sounds good? Let’s dive in!

Overview

Before we dive into the details, let me first give you a big-picture overview of my Triad system.

First, you need to simplify the guitar fretboard so that you have a limited and manageable area to focus on.

To do this, we divide the fretboard into four string sets:

  1. The first set includes the E, B, and G strings.
  2. The second set includes the B, G, and D strings.
  3. The third set includes the G, D, and A strings.
  4. The fourth set includes the D, A, and low E strings.

So, By limiting your attention to just one string set at a time, you now can visualize the triads horizontally across the fretboard.

Now, let’s get an overview of the theory. The good news? It’s relatively simple because, in music theory, there are only two main triad categories: major and minor.

And Each of these has a sibling:

  • The major sibling is the The augmented triad.
  • And the minor sibling is the diminished triad.

In total, there are just four triad types: major, minor, augmented, and diminished.

Since a triad has only three notes, there are exactly three ways to organize it.

In other words you can play one single triad in three different positions:

  1. Root position
  2. First inversion
  3. Second inversion

That’s it!

In theory, this gives us a total of 12 shapes per string set.

If we do the math:

4 string sets × 12 shapes that’s a total of 48 shapes.

It might sound like a lot at first glance, but in practical reality, it’s a bit less than that. This is because:

The augmented triad has only one shape for all positions. And The two lowest string sets share the same shapes for every triad type.

The real trick lies in understanding how similar each triad is to the others. Once you grasp that each triad type differs by just one note, it becomes much easier to remember the shapes and switch between them.

So, let’s take a brief look at the music theory of triads to understand how similar these shapes really are.

Music Theory

All triads are built on a straightforward principle:

They consist of three notes—a root, a third, and a fifth—or, simply put, two thirds stacked together and there are just two main types of triads: The Major and The Minor:

A Major Triad consists of: Root, major third, and perfect fifth.

Or, you can think of it as a minor third stacked on top of a major third.

A Minor Triad consists of: Root, minor third, and perfect fifth.

Or, you can think of it as a minor third stacked on top of a major third.

Notice that they differ by just one note: a major triad has a major third, while a minor triad has a minor third.

Now, let’s take a quick look at their “siblings”:

  • The major sibling is the augmented triad:

    It consists of a Root, major third, and augmented fifth. So it’s a fifth increased by a halfstep. Therefore you can think of it as two major thirds stacked together.

    Notice how the difference between a major triad and an augmented triad is just one note.

  • And the minor sibling is the diminished triad:

    It consists of a Root, minor third, and diminished fifth.

    Or, two minor thirds stacked together.

Again, there’s just a one-note difference between the minor and diminished triads. For a minor triad, the fifth is perfect, but for a diminished triad, the fifth is diminished, so it’s lowered by a halfstep.

If you compare all four triads, you’ll notice they are only separated by a single-note difference.

When comparing a major triad to a minor triad, the third changes.

Comparing a major triad to an augmented triad, the fifth changes.

Finally, comparing a minor triad to a diminished triad, the fifth changes as well.

With this understanding, you can clearly see how closely related all four triads are!

Now, let’s take a look at the topic of inversions.

Inversions

The theory of inversions is very simple as well, and you just need to keep a few key points in mind.

Since a triad consists of only three notes, there are exactly three ways to organize it.

In music theory, we always refer to the lowest note to determine whether a triad is in root position, first inversion, or second inversion.

  • In root position, the lowest note is the root note. That’s the definition of root position.
  • In first inversion, you take the root note and move it to the top, making the third the lowest note.
  • In second inversion, you take the third and move it to the top, making the fifth the lowest note.

That’s all you need to know about inversions for the purpose of understanding this concept.

However, let me briefly emphasize again: the lowest note always defines the inversion, no matter how many other notes are being played.

For example, if you play this C major chord (show and play it), you’re actually playing six notes simultaneously.

To determine the inversion, you focus on the lowest note. In this case, the lowest note is the Low E string, which is the third of the chord. Since the third is in the bass, we call this a first inversion, regardless of which or how many notes are above it.

I’m pointing this out just to be precise with the theory.

However, for our purposes, we’ll only be working with triads of three notes, so it’s tempting to assume that the first inversion always has the root note on top. But that’s not true—always refer to the lowest note to determine the inversion corretcly.

How To Practice Triads Systematically

Horizontally

OK, now that you have an overview of my Triad system, let’s apply this to the guitar. I already mentioned that by dividing the fretboard into four sets of strings, you can play triads horizontally across the fretboard. But what about the vertical dimension? How can you play triads vertically?

Don’t worry—we’ll cover that as well. However, we first need to build a strong foundation. In order to understand how triads are translated vertically on the fretboard, you first need to master the horizontal dimension.

And, To do this, everything will become clear when we play just

a single triad across the entire fretboard. By doing so, you’ll see why it’s necessary to learn the horizontal dimension first before attempting to play triads vertically.

So first, start by focusing on just a single triad on a just single string set. Begin at the lowest possible position and then move through all the inversions until you reach the end of the fretboard.

Due to the fretboard’s design, we can’t always start in root position. Instead, we need to figure out the lowest possible triad on each string set for each chord.

Let’s use the C major triad here on the E, B, and G strings as an example:

  1. The lowest possible triad is the second inversion:
    • G (open G string)
    • C (B string, 1st fret)
    • E (open E string).

From here, the sequence is:

  • Second inversion 
  • Root position 
  • First inversion
  • Keep repeating the sequence until you reach the end of the fretboard.

Focus on one triad on one string set until you can play it smoothly in both directions. It should sound fluid.

Once you feel confident, move on to practicing the same triad on the other string sets. This will take time, but there are no shortcuts here—relax and enjoy the process.

To help you out, I’ve created tabs for the all 4 triads in C across all string sets. If you’re unsure where to play them you can look them up. so that you have a good starting point to learn my triad system.

So, you can use this as a starting point and go through the c major, c minor, c diminished, and c augmented triads across the entire fretboard using the tabs I created for you.

This should give you a jumpstart in learning the triad system.

However, if you’ve completed the exercises from the earlier parts of this series, you shouldn’t have too much trouble locating the notes on the fretboard.

If you’re struggling here, that’s really a sign to revisit the earlier exercises and spend more time there. This series was designed so that each part builds on the previous one. By doing the earlier exercises, you’ll have the foundational skills to grasp this concept quickly and without too much confusion.

Vertically

Now let’s play the same triad, but vertically across the fretboard.

But Before starting this step, ensure you’ve practiced the triad horizontally on all four string sets. This is essential for mastering the vertical exercise because, if you’ve practiced the horizontal dimension on all four sets, you already have played vertically, because you have practice each string set. So, playing vertically becomes just a matter of connecting the dots, so to speak.

Here’s the process for how you can practice a single Triad vertically:

  1. Start on the first string set at the lowest position.
  2. Play the triad vertically descending through all string sets 
  3. Ascend back to your starting position.
  4. Move horizontally to the next inversion (e.g., from second inversion to root position).
  5. Repeat the vertical descent and ascent.

Continue this process until you reach the end of the fretboard, then reverse and return to your starting point

So, What’s Next?

We’ve worked through this with just one triad, but obviously, there are many more to explore!

From here, the possibilities for practicing triads are nearly endless, and I recommend creating a practice plan that works for you. You can either focus on practicing the triads you actually need for a specific song or backing track, or, if you decide to systematically learn all the triads on the guitar, you can approach with one of the two approaches:

1st Approach: A Systematic Method

This approach is very systematic but without musical context. So keep this in mind.

  1. Start by playing triads based on the natural notes: A, B, C, D, E, F, G.

  2. For each root note, go through the four triad types:

• Major

• Minor

• Augmented

• Diminished

For example:

• Play all A Major triads across the fretboard.

• Move to A Augmented and play it across the fretboard.

• Then practice A Minor and A Diminished.

  1. Once you’ve completed all triad types for A, move to B, then C, and so on until you’ve covered all the natural notes.

  2. After finishing the natural notes, expand to the accidentals: A#, C#, D#, F#, G# (or their enharmonic equivalents, Bb, Db, Eb, Gb, Ab).

This is a comprehensive and systematic way to master triads. However, I don’t recommend starting with this approach because it lacks any musical context. It’s more about covering all bases than directly applying triads in a musical setting.

If you like the idea of having a structured system like this, check out the resources on my website, where I provide worksheets to help you track your progress with this method.

Once you feel confident, start working on triads in other keys. For example, move from C Major to G Major. Transitioning between neighboring keys is easier because only one note changes, and you’ll only need to learn three new triads for each new key

You can continue this process through guitar-relevant keys, from F Major to E Major, and focusing on one key at a time.

With this approach, you won’t practice augmented triads initially, and that’s okay! Because augmented triads are used less frequently compared to major, minor, and diminished triads, which form the backbone of most music styles.

Both approaches have their merits. The first is ideal for those who enjoy working through a systematic framework. The second approach is better for those looking for musical context. Pick the one that you prefer or that suits your learning style—or maybe even try both!

2nd Approach: Practice Within a Musical Context

This approach is more practical and musically relevant, especially for beginners.

Start with the Triads in the Key of C Major

Here, you’ll practice triads within a single key, so the triads are related and immediately useful for practicing chord progressions or improvisation.

• Begin with C Major.

• Then move to D Minor, E Minor, F Major, G Major, A Minor, and B Diminished.

• Practice each triad across the fretboard until you’re comfortable with all the triads in the key of C Major.

Once you’ve mastered these, you can either:

• Move on to a different key, or

• Stay in the same key and practice chord progressions like:

• I-IV-V

• ii-V-I

• vi-IV-I-V

Or, you can practice all the triads in a key by organizing them in the sequence of descending fifths.

I’ve already made a video on this topic, so check it out if you’re interested in learning this in detail and getting the tabs!

Expand to Other Keys

Once you feel confident, start working on triads in other keys. For example, move from C Major to G Major. Transitioning between neighboring keys is easier because only one note changes, and you’ll only need to learn three new triads for each new key

You can Continue this process through guitar-relevant keys, from F Major to E Major, and focusing on one key at a time.

With this approach, you won’t practice augmented triads initially, and that’s okay! Because augmented triads are used less frequently compared to major, minor, and diminished triads, which form the backbone of most music styles.

Both approaches have their merits. The first is ideal for those who enjoy working through a systematic framework. The second approach is better for those looking for musical context. Pick the one that you prefer or that suits your learning style—or maybe even try both!

Part 6 is coming soon

Ok, there we have it!

because this five-part series is so comprehensive, I really feel that a sixth part is necessary to tie it all together.

So in a future lesson I’ll share my recommendations on how to practice everything we’ve covered here in this 5 part series and show you how to create a structured practice plan that incorporates all five parts without too much overwhelm.

Just In case you have missed the previous Lesson:

Part 1: Horizontal Diatonics (Learn The note names on the fretboard)

Part 2: Horizontal Intervals

Part 3: Vertical Intervals

Part 4: Scale Chunks

So stay tuned and I see you in the next lesson.

Gregor

2 Comments

  1. I just learnt about your channel today and Im thrilled to dive in your lessons. Great insights on the topic of triads, thank you so much for an invaluable help. I will definitely will use your approach on this and the other topics you cover.
    Juan Carlos

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