How to Play Triads on the First Three Strings
Triads
In this lesson, I will show you how to play triads on the first three strings.
To play a triad means to play different notes. We will get these three notes from the G major scale.
How to Build Triads
If you start with the root and include the third and fifth, this will be how you build these triads. This is also called “in thirds”. On a music staff, all your triads built in thirds would be on consecutive lines or consecutive spaces.
The G major scale notes are, G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, and G. For our first triad you would play G, B, and D. This equals a G major triad. You would do this for each note in the G scale.
The other triad or chord qualities in the major scale would be A minor, B minor, C major, D major, E minor, and F# minor b5, ending with another G major to finish.
Opening Up the Fretboard
To play these triads along the fretboard on strings 1, 2, and 3, we will start in the third position and finish in the fifteenth position.
You will see these triad patterns up and down the fretboard in eight different positions.
This way of playing is good for breaking out of the major scale box patterns (My post “Pentatonic Scale Plus Two Equals Major Scale”).
G Major Scale Triads on the First Three Strings
15th fret
How to Practice
- Play them as chords strumming them all together
- Arpeggiate them one note at a time
- Use them in chord progressions
- Find a backing track on YouTube for one of the modes of the G major scale and practice sequencing them up and down the fretboard
These are just a few suggestions on how to get started in practicing these triads.
If you liked this post, be sure and check out my next article on playing triads using strings 2, 3, and 4 from the G major scale.