Learning Triad stuff?

[pipelineaudio]

I have pretty high level technical skills on guitar but couldn't play along on a chart if my life depended on it. So many nights I mix bands where the guitar players are always asking me how to do this or that technique or speed yet I am in awe of how they can just instantly play chords along on songs they don't know, and just seem to have the neck musically mapped out to where they don't even have to think about it. Give me the key of a song and I can play lead shreddy stuff along to the point where people think i knew the song, but I wouldn't be able to do more than that, certainly not hold the rhythm down.

I watched a video recently that had the guy going thru triads and more than my "sure the notes are all in key" the stuff he played really sounded like it was born there, like so many of my favorite solos do. I watched a pile more triad videos and tried to teach myself all six major and minor shapes I'd normally be using, but really still pretty lost.

This was the video I saw at first

It links to a course that really gave the upsell, megachurch, multi level marketing scam type of vibe, and obviously, looking at this guy's video and makeup, you know exactly where its coming from, but sometimes these courses are actually legit. There's a megachurch scam based series on the behringer and midas mixers which is absolutely top notch for instance, so who knows?

Here is the course sent to from the video: https://www.soulfulguitarlessons.com/thefretboardbreakthrough

There's already an upsell even on that page, so the scam detector is going off, but I don't know

Has anyone seen this guy's courses, or can recommend a better way for me to learn triads in the context of solos?

I really would like that sort of command where someone can stay in one position and just pick triad roots and inversions of the correct notes that all fit in that one position

 

[Rackman]

I did this all long before youtube was a thing, but I wouldn't use a course. I would follow these steps:
1) Learn the notes on the neck, including the accidentals, if you have not done so. I can't emphasize how important this is. It takes a couple weeks to just memorize that shit. If you care about guitar those are the most important weeks to spend.
2) Pick a triad for example a C major triad to start. Work out what the 3 inversions of it are (C E G) (E G C) (G E C). If you have to work it out on a piano or by ear on the guitar or look it up. But eventually you should be able to do this in your head.
3) Pick one of the numerous Cs on the fretboard (with a 24 fret guitar there are 12 to choose from) but don't choose the super high fret ones to start
4) Find the 3 inversions of a C cord around that C you selected such that the notes fall on 3 adjacent strings. If you picked a C on one of the outside strings, 1 or 2 of the inversions may fall of the side of the fretboard. Fine. Some of them may run off one end or the other of the fretboard. Also fine. Skip all those. You should get 24 triads maybe less a few that ran off the ends of the fretboard.

Now put on a backing track with that chord (C major in this case) in it and start trying them all out. Some will sound good for some things, others won't. Some will sound good with distortion. Others will be muddy or hard to grip or hard to intonate. Learn which is which. There are some obvious patterns. For example the lower and upper octave of the fretboard are the same.

Then go back to 2) and pick a different triad. Loop over all 12 notes, and 3 triad types (major, minor, diminished). Eventually you'll have 24 versions each of 36 different triads. You can then do augmented triads if you're bored, but they don't get used much except as passing tones in most music.

 

[TheBiggestJerk]

I have pretty high level technical skills on guitar but couldn't play along on a chart if my life depended on it. So many nights I mix bands where the guitar players are always asking me how to do this or that technique or speed yet I am in awe of how they can just instantly play chords along on songs they don't know, and just seem to have the neck musically mapped out to where they don't even have to think about it. Give me the key of a song and I can play lead shreddy stuff along to the point where people think i knew the song, but I wouldn't be able to do more than that, certainly not hold the rhythm down.

I watched a video recently that had the guy going thru triads and more than my "sure the notes are all in key" the stuff he played really sounded like it was born there, like so many of my favorite solos do. I watched a pile more triad videos and tried to teach myself all six major and minor shapes I'd normally be using, but really still pretty lost.

This was the video I saw at first

It links to a course that really gave the upsell, megachurch, multi level marketing scam type of vibe, and obviously, looking at this guy's video and makeup, you know exactly where its coming from, but sometimes these courses are actually legit. There's a megachurch scam based series on the behringer and midas mixers which is absolutely top notch for instance, so who knows?

Here is the course sent to from the video: https://www.soulfulguitarlessons.com/thefretboardbreakthrough

There's already an upsell even on that page, so the scam detector is going off, but I don't know

Has anyone seen this guy's courses, or can recommend a better way for me to learn triads in the context of solos?

I really would like that sort of command where someone can stay in one position and just pick triad roots and inversions of the correct notes that all fit in that one position

Do you know how to spell chords?
Major, Minor, Dominatrix 7 etc.

 

[DanTravis62]

I did this all long before youtube was a thing, but I wouldn't use a course. I would follow these steps:
1) Learn the notes on the neck, including the accidentals, if you have not done so. I can't emphasize how important this is. It takes a couple weeks to just memorize that shit. If you care about guitar those are the most important weeks to spend.
2) Pick a triad for example a C major triad to start. Work out what the 3 inversions of it are (C E G) (E G C) (G E C). If you have to work it out on a piano or by ear on the guitar or look it up. But eventually you should be able to do this in your head.
3) Pick one of the numerous Cs on the fretboard (with a 24 fret guitar there are 12 to choose from) but don't choose the super high fret ones to start
4) Find the 3 inversions of a C cord around that C you selected such that the notes fall on 3 adjacent strings. If you picked a C on one of the outside strings, 1 or 2 of the inversions may fall of the side of the fretboard. Fine. Some of them may run off one end or the other of the fretboard. Also fine. Skip all those. You should get 24 triads maybe less a few that ran off the ends of the fretboard.

Now put on a backing track with that chord (C major in this case) in it and start trying them all out. Some will sound good for some things, others won't. Some will sound good with distortion. Others will be muddy or hard to grip or hard to intonate. Learn which is which. There are some obvious patterns. For example the lower and upper octave of the fretboard are the same.

Then go back to 2) and pick a different triad. Loop over all 12 notes, and 3 triad types (major, minor, diminished). Eventually you'll have 24 versions each of 36 different triads. You can then do augmented triads if you're bored, but they don't get used much except as passing tones in most music.

This is good advice.

You can also use CAGED or 3NPS to "target" triads. I'm not endorsing either method, just throwing it out there that lots of people use both methods.

 

[TheBiggestJerk]

This is good advice.

You can also use CAGED or 3NPS to "target" triads. I'm not endorsing either method, just throwing it out there that lots of people use both methods.

It’s great advice, but it assumes the user has a cursory knowledge of basic theory. If not, it’s Greek. Chord structure seems to confuse a lot of people.

 

[DanTravis62]

It’s great advice, but it assumes the user has a cursory knowledge of basic theory. If not, it’s Greek. Chord structure seems to confuse a lot of people.

If someone doesn't have a grasp of basic theory, they don't really have any reason to be grappling with triads though

I really liked Levi Clay's video for how he practices them

 

[pipelineaudio]

Do you know how to spell chords?
Major, Minor, Dominatrix 7 etc.

I really only know by heart the root and 2nd inversion triads of major, minor and diminished on strings G B and E, just now starting to learn them on D G B

 

[TheBiggestJerk]

I really only know by heart the root and 2nd inversion triads of major, minor and diminished on strings G B and E, just now starting to learn them on D G B

explain to me what a triad is.(respectfully)

 

[Rackman]

This is good advice.

You can also use CAGED or 3NPS to "target" triads. I'm not endorsing either method, just throwing it out there that lots of people use both methods.

Yeah CAGED in particular can be useful for finding chords, and knowing what notes are chord tones vs. the other two pentatonic notes that are almost always in-sounding vs. the remaining 2 major scale/mode tones that are chord-role specific.

It’s great advice, but it assumes the user has a cursory knowledge of basic theory. If not, it’s Greek. Chord structure seems to confuse a lot of people.

One advantage of the internet is you can look up the spelling of any given chord without having to really understand WHY it's that. Which makes just knowing the notes on the fretboard all you need to get rolling.

 

[TheBiggestJerk]

Yeah CAGED in particular can be useful for finding chords, and knowing what notes are chord tones vs. the other two pentatonic notes that are almost always in-sounding vs. the remaining 2 major scale/mode tones that are chord-role specific.

One advantage of the internet is you can look up the spelling of any given chord without having to really understand WHY it's that. Which makes just knowing the notes on the fretboard all you need to get rolling.

it’s not really possible to look it up on stage in the middle of a song… knowing the why is what’s important. It’s the application of the formula, and that’s what I’m trying to tease out of OP. He said he could not read chart to save his life, so ostensibly that’s seems to be an issue - chord construction. Any monkey can push buttons.

 

[DanTravis62]

it’s not really possible to look it up on stage in the middle of a song… knowing the why is what’s important. It’s the application of the formula, and that’s what I’m trying to tease out of OP. He said he could not read chart to save his life, so ostensibly that’s seems to be an issue - chord construction. Any monkey can push buttons.

I feel like the definition of "chart" is the important part of that

Like, I cant read and play sheet music simultaneously but I can certainly look at a quick and dirty chord chart and fake my way through anything

 

[Rackman]

I don't think anyone's going to be googling chord spellings on stage, but the reality is on any instrument you end up learning things off stage and then developing muscle memory. So no matter how much theory you know you don't really spell chords on stage - it's bypassed by muscle memory.

 

[DanTravis62]

Yeah CAGED in particular can be useful for finding chords, and knowing what notes are chord tones vs. the other two pentatonic notes that are almost always in-sounding vs. the remaining 2 major scale/mode tones that are chord-role specific.

100%, plus, once you get some of those patterns under your belt you tend to see them everywhere and "unlock"them all over the neck.

Having an idea of what those chord tones "do" in relation to the root is really helpful in composition

 

[TheBiggestJerk]

I feel like the definition of "chart" is the important part of that

Like, I cant read and play sheet music simultaneously but I can certainly look at a quick and dirty chord chart and fake my way through anything

I think there’s also a tendency to over complicate this. A napkin with 3 chords … not even 3, 2 chords, could be a chart… or even an outline.

 

[TheBiggestJerk]

100%, plus, once you get some of those patterns under your belt you tend to see them everywhere and "unlock"them all over the neck.

Having an idea of what those chord tones "do" in relation to the root is really helpful in composition

The properties a note has relative to the root is where the magic happens.

 

[pipelineaudio]

explain to me what a triad is.(respectfully)

As far as I know, a chord consisting of a root, 3rd and 5th, so for a major scale you'd have a root and a minor third and a fifth, a root and a major third and a fifth, or a root and a minor third and a diminished fifth. And of those, they can have the root on the lowest string, a first inversion of the root on the highest string and a second inversion of the root on the middle string

 

[pipelineaudio]

I feel like the definition of "chart" is the important part of that

Sometimes its Nashville Numbering, sometimes its a head chart, but like for our Live Band Karaoke band, those guys can just look at a fake book style chart and just "get it"