Triads & Inversion, An Essential Guide For Guitarists

1. Introduction To Triads: Hi. My name is Jeff Sinker, and welcome to my course entitled Triads and intervals. As we work through the course, I will explain what these terms actually mean and how we use them as guitarists. Now triads are a super useful tool on the guitar. They can help you understand how music is constructed and how you can navigate the fretboard. Understanding triads will expand your musicality and allow you to play effortlessly and with more expression. Now, as a beginner, you will have playing chords like the C, the G, the D A minor. Even the good old D. Now, all of these codes are constructed from triads using different inversions, and we will be discussing more about that later in the course. To work with triads, I need to explain a little music theory so you can understand how triads are formed. Now, a C major scale contains the notes, CD EFG, A, B, and C. And if we were to assign numbers to each note, it would look like this. We can describe the distance or spacing between each nu as an interval. These are the root, the major second, major third, perfect fourth, perfect fifth, major six, and major seventh, and also an octave, which is just the root null played higher. We can also number these intervals. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, a triad consists of three nuts. They are the root, the third, and the fifth. Now, in the case of the C scale, these notes are C, E and G. And if we play these on the guitar, they will sound like this. So we have our C note, which is going to be on the third fret of the A string. And we look down, and we've got an E, which is on the D string, second fret. And then we've got an open G, CEG. We play them. And I joke, you would recognize that ship. If I was just to put my finger down onto the octat which is on the scene up on the first fret of the beatString. We have the scene major cut. There are four main types of triads we have major, minor, diminished, and augmented. For the purpose of this course, we are going to focus on the major and the minor triads. The intervals in the major chord, as we've discussed, are the root, the major third, and the perfect fifth. And if we take those notes, we will have a major triad. Now, in the case of the mita code, all we've got to do is just flatten the third. So we go by to our C code, which is the major, which is the C, the E, and the G. Now, the third n is the E. So if we was just to lower it one for it or a half tone, we would get a E flat. And then you give us a C minor triad. And that flattened note is known as a minor third. So in this case, we have root, min third and the perfect fifth gene. We can also see them as stack fds, which, again, as we work through the course, you'll be seeing more and more about this information. And because intervals are always constant, we can play these tris from any root node. So if I want you to play a G, find the G, and all I'm going to play from there, the first, the third, and the fifth, we get a G, move over the A to the B, and then we have got the D, which is the fifth. But if I play them across the strings, we end up with a G, the B, and in this case, the open D. If we build that up further, that is our G chord. But what are we going to notice here, as well? When I played the C at the sea man you try, if I just moved up, one string, it's the same shape. Play that. Now, we have an open string there, but I could move that around and take the same principle. I've got a root. Down to the major third and then back where we have moved forward to notes or to fretch I say. That would be an E. That would be an A major triad. I could move it up. We have a B major tribe. And the D major tribe. It even works when we move across to another stream. We move down to the A string. I can play that D major tribe I just played here. I could play here, but I'm playing the same shape. If you want to learn more information about intervals and cords, what I do is suggest you check out my other course called intervals and Cords for the beginner. And that will explain a lot of the information how these intervals are building the cords that we have played as beginners. Now what we're going to do, we are going to look at inversions. 2. Inversions: Now let's discuss inversions and what that means. Well, then inversion is simply where we change the order of the one, the three, the five, the one, being the root, the major third, and the fifth or the minor third and the fifth. So we can have two inversions. The first inversion is where we start the triad from the third, then to the fifth and then to the one, so we get a 351. The second inversion is we do a 51, three. It's quite simple, actually when you think about it. Now what we will do, we will find these inversions across the string sets. And the string sets we're going to be looking at are in groups of three. We have the E, the A, and the D, which is set one, A, D, and G, set two, D, G, and B, set three, and the G, B, and the E are set four. So let's start off with the C. So we have our first triad. We are playing that 35. Now, if we want to move up the fretboard and play across the same set of strings using the notes from the triad, we would look for the first note on that A string from the triad. So we are playing a C E and a G. So what we look for is the End. So that's the three. Now the fifth note that we would have been playing was the G nude. So we've already found the E nut here on the A string. The G nude is down here on the fifth front. So that's there, the five. Now what we want to do is find the one, so we're looking for a C nude on the next string underneath. Well, the C is on the five front. So our first inversion quite possibly played that before in some simple songs. So we've got one, three, 5351. And what we're gonna do now, we're going to move up the same set of strings. We are going to look for the Gut which is up here on the tenth fret. So we've got that note there. Now we're looking for, because that is the fifth, we're going to look for the one. Well, the one is the next available C on the lower string, which is the D string. Well, the C is going to be here on the teen frat also. Five, one. And now we need the third. Well, the major third from a root note is going to be one string down and one fret back. So the fifth note is there on the ninth fret on the G. Now, I'm sure you've seen that ship before. If we think of an E major chord, we have got. And it is taken from our bichod. If you've been playing bicods you play a C major bichod which has got the bar on the eighth fret. And notice that we are playing down on the fretboard away from the bar which is the five. And if we move up the fretboard more, we can go back to the octave, and we are going to play the same shape we're down here, but we do have to fret the note on the 12th, so we get Which is going to be Thede first. And the fifth. So we've got that triad. This first inversion goes though, a different order and then up second inversion, and then by to the octave. So you can take a little bit of time practicing that moving across, which would be the second set of strings because with the A, the D, and the G. Now, I did say that intervals are always constant. They never change. So what we're going to do, we are going to look at the intervals and the inversions on the low set, which is string set number one. So first available C that we have got is on the eight frame. Now, all we're gonna do is gonna play the same as we did down here on the A and the D. We have that. We're just going to find them on the A and the D string. So there is our C as our first major third coming down to the E, which is and then we've got the perfect fifth. Down here on the fifth because that would have been an open string before, so we've got which is exactly how we play it up here. We've just moved it here. So there's our C. Now we're going to look for our next, which is the major furt and the triad, which is up here on the 12th fret, which is four frets high. There's another thing to remember. When we're moving from these notes, we've got a root not got four frets, which is the major furt. Now, this is what I talked about staged furts. If I then moved a minor fd up from this note, which is only three frets we flattened everything by one half step, we get. So we've got root, a major fd, and then stacked with a minor furt and then up to the octave. So on here on the low string. I move up to the E, which is a major ft. We are playing the E. We have got to find ourselves at the G And then we are looking for the one, which is here on the ten frame. Exactly. When we moved up from here Now we're going to move up and it's going to get a little bit tight on here on the guitar because I'm going to start running at frets here. But we've gone from here, so we are now going to move up a minor third, so we are going up to the G. So we've got the G there. We are looking for the C. So we've got Cs directly beneath it. And then we are going to be looking for the for the E. So we've played that same shape that we did here, but we're playing it here. So the triad and the inversions tend to always be, as you can see, the same. It doesn't matter where we are on them, too. We have that where we can play across or we could play it here. If we moved up, we have the same O here. Like that. So once you have worked out how these inversions work and the shapes of the inversions, starts coming together a little bit easier for us. And we can start to move up and down c we start to recognize these shapes as we play through We can play down here. Like that. Now I've run out, and it's going to get seriously short. I'll frets down here for playing that down here. But we are seeing the different intervals as we move across the string sets. Now, this is where it gets a little bit different because we're going to look at the string sets as we move across that dreaded tuning of B string. So we merged across here. We've got the But now when we start to move across into the D, the G, and the B string, we have got that B string there. So what we're going to do, we are going to look for our C down here on the D string. So our first available one is going to be here. So we've got our C, A major third interval now 'cause we're going to be looking for that E, one string down one for a back. Now I did mention about stack first. So if we've done a major fd here moving down, we are looking for a minor third interval. Now, when we move normally on a minor third, it's watering down two frets back, but in this case, because it's the G to the B, watering down one fret bike, there is our G. Like that. So that is giving us the one, three, five with the stack fur. As I see, if we move up and we are looking for the next instance of the E. We're coming down here. Now, we've got that moving across, and we're looking at that. It's going to be a minor third interval. So we've got an interval now that's going to be like that now. The next one that we're going to be playing because of that B string, normally would have been straight underneath. Well, that's about right. Because of the B string, we have got to move. So we got free The one. And we can just about get it up here where we can play. Now, that one would have been the one that looked like the Ecor, but now it looks like our good old Achor, but being played up here on the 15th frat. So we have got 17 freer. So we have got that across to here. And then we're up here. And I've run out of frets across here. Obviously, if we're looking at a different code, we won't have the same problem. We running out of frets. Let's look at the final set of strings looking at these triads over the C cod. So we are going to be looking for the lowest C that we have got which is going to be down here on the G string. So there is our one? We are looking for the major fd, remember, the major fd across to the B string is just straight down. And then we've got a mina fd, which is one string two frets back. So we've got a sutriad there. We move up, we're looking for our next inversion. So really, we're taking that note, which is the E. We're gonna try and find it here up on the G string, which is going to be on our knife fret. We got to play a minor third because we're going three to the five G to the B. One down, one back. And then we're looking for the one, which is the C, which is here. So we've gone from here. That. Now, again, let's move up. We're looking for the G. Well, it's going to be on the 12 fret. That's on the 12 fret, he's giving me a G on a G string. We're looking for the C well, which is going to be the root note. We got five. We've got one there. We are now looking for the E well, it's going to be a major food. So one down, one by, we end up with a D chord shape five free. So we have got that there. Cross there. And then. So we have now covered all of the major chord triad inversions across the string sets that we have got available to us. 3. Minor Triads: Now we are going to look at the minor triad. Now, I did say beginning of the video, if we are looking at a minor triad, we are looking at a root, flat furd and a perfect frif. And in the case of the s, as we saw, we have, we're going to take the major furd, flatten it by a half torn so it becomes a minor food. What we've actually got there, as well, is we've got a minor fd, followed by a major fd, so we've got them stacked fds yet again. So our first. Now as we move up, remember, we are talking a minor third, so it's free frets, which is an E flat. Now, that is the only thing that we are gonna change through these triads and the inversions of the triads. We are just going to flatten the third. So our first one Now, when we did the major, we did this. But because we are looking at doing the flat third, we are going to move down a half tone like that. If we again, we think of what we played here, which became like that to play the flat third there we got five. One. Free. And then, of course, we've got the same here, root minor food, major food like that. So we have then and then we moving up to here. And again, moving through them. And we get a little bit harder to play that first shape. And and then back out. Now, when we move on to the lower string set, it's going to be exactly the same principle again. We've got our C, E flat. Now when we move up, we're going into the E flat, of course. So we are going to play E flat. We have our G, then across to the C. Same as what we did here. When we move up to the G, we have got so we got the five, the one. And across to the flat free there. And if I had enough strings that I can reach to it, we'd be doing exactly the same thing he'll And I do. Now, everything that we've done will be the same as when we're doing the majors apart from flattening the third. So the shapes that we played before are all the same. We just got to be cautious when we move across the D to the G to the B, because we have got that flattened tonda that we've got to deal with, which was that E flat. Now, we can play going across here because we got the E flat. Still do that. That works for us quite well. Moving up, again, we got to be cautious that when we played that, we have got that triad before. We would have just played it across like that. We've got G. C. Hello, E flat. So we moved down. It like you can see a lot of these triads in these inversions from a lot of the barcos that you've already been playing, so we've got. When we move there when we move up into the seat sharp How about it kind of movement there? Like that. So just be aware of the movement when we go between that G and B string. But if you've been doing barcods you will see a lot as I've said, a lot of these inversions that work for you on that. So the minors are not too bad because of the fact that we're only changing one note across the triads and the inversions that we can play on there. 4. Combining Triads: For this section, we are going to take all the information that we have and we're going to start combining them diatonically. We are going to take four chords that are connected diatonically to the C chord. We are going to use the one major chord, the six minor chord, the four major chord, and the five major chord. Beneath, I have shown you the diagram of the diatonic cords that work in the key of C. And you can see we've got a C major, we've got a D minor and E minus F major, which you talked about, and the G major on the four and five, and the A minor on the six, do not worry about the diminished cord. As I said, we're only focusing on the major and the minor Trad. But these cords can be connected and played together because they're all diatonically connected to the C major. But we for this lesson we're just going to be looking at. A minor F. I'm back again. What we're going to do, we are going to look for positions where we can connect these various chords together. Now we could play very simple and just use the length of the fretboard to play this. You know, I could take the first one, which I can play the C. And then I can move straight into the A minor. And then I can move. Nothing wrong with it. You're playing them. One, three, five. Then I've got the 153. And then I've got 135 here on the 135. But that's too easy. Let's start to experiment with these and see them in different ways where we can play them. Well, I'm going to give you one little example here. I can take the C here. And I'm working down that. I guess it was that I know, but I'm just going to try and show you the length of the strings. So we have got this five. Now, I've got to play an A minor. What I'm going to be doing, I'm going to be working a descending line from this, so I'm going to take this A So one, two, three. And I'm coming down here, and I am using that position now. So I have got the root. I'm coming down to the E which is going to be the five. And I've got the C, which is the minor fern. Well, then I am going to take this pattern for the B for the F. Which is the that way. And we're just gonna make it a little bit easier on this first one. I'm gonna go up, and I'm gonna descend it. So I've got that one. Because I don't want you always thinking downwards. We're gonna start using some of these positions. We're gonna be moving upwards by using that. And that. There are numerous other ways that we can play into this. We could take a C, and we could take this another way of playing that triad as an arpeggio. Playing that triad there. Then I could think about playing the A taking the B from there. When I get to the F, I could take the F, and I could just play across so I'm playing. And then move up. So we are looking at various ways of playing it. Some of them make easier than others. So we got the C chord here. And then I can take into the A M a good movie down here. We'd go to the F, so I could move up to that F chord, and then I could move it to the G. We open strings, I wanted to do it that way. Oh, what I'd like you to do is just experiment with different ways that you can move that around. But what I'm going to do now, I'm going to do a little performance here where I'm going to be taking it across one, two, three, four. I'm going to move across four notes of that triad, and we're going to put it together, and I'm sure you'll be able to see the different triads that I've been playing when I'm playing through these. So, it goes like this. 5. Linear Triads: In this section, what we're going to do is look at how we can use triads in a more linear fashion. Now, what we're going to do is take one shape, and we're going to keep replicating that across the fret board. Now, first of all, we'll start off looking at the C major triad in this fashion. Now, we're going to start here on the Cn which is on the eighth front. And then we have got a major fern interval taking us to the E, like that. The next interval we're going to play as we discussed by stacking thirds, is going to be a minor fd because we've just played a major fd. So the next interval we're going to be playing is a minor third, and the simplest way of doing that is to see as one string down and two frets back like that. So we've got As triad. Now what we're going to do is find another occurrence of the snout, which is the octave. And the beauty of this way it's laid out on the fret board. The octave that we're looking for is directly beneath. The fifth knot that we played, which was that G nut. So we're going from here in that shape. All we're going to do then is pick up the first finger and move it to that new position on the sea. And we're going to play exactly the same shape. So we're going to move here from the tenth frat major fo four frats takes us to 14 frat. And then we just move down and play that fifth. So, exactly the same shape. We don't really have to think too much about it. We just have to replicate that directly underneath. Mm. And play the same. Now we're going to find our next position for the C. Well, because we've moved across from the D crossing over the B string, our octave is actually going to be here on the 13 fret. So our octaves. And all we do again, is we play the exact same ship. Like that so position wise, all we got to do is just keep replicating that ship, and we can do that on any of the C positions. I could move down here on the A string. And play it like that. And all we got to do is then look for our next position of the C. Now, little caveat here, we have to remember that when we are crossing between the G and the B string, the major third and the minor fd intervals are different. And again, that was covered in a previous course. So, all I'm going to do now, I'm going to look for the C position. Well, I've got it here on the fifth fret. Now, because we're on the same string, the first interval isn't affected, so we've got that. We've got that movement down there. Now, we have got to take a minor fd, because we've already played the major fern. Now, when we cross from the B or the G to the B string, because of the tuning on the guitar, we're not going to go bike two frats. We're only going to go bike one frat. So I'm now here on the Gnode, which is up on the eighth fract. So we've got that. So we've now got this. So I can take from here, cross to my next C. And we can't now because we've got this string, we're only crossing over to the E string. We can only cross there. Then we'd have to move up the string to play that next trib. And then up to, like that. But it does show that we can use these same pans apart from that last change over between the G and the B. So it works in any of the other position on the notes cause intervals are always constant. So if I wanted to play the A, I go down to the A. Directly underneath, it's our octa. And then we move down to the A. Pick a note there. When we are moving from the octave to the B string from that G to the B string, the position of the octave that we're looking for after that fifth, instead of it being directly beneath, it's one front back. So just another tip there. And it's the same shape. So that works directly across the fret board. So, what I would do, just take any note and just practice moving between them shapes. So that's the major. The minor, all we're going to do is flatten the third. So if we go back to the C, instead of moving up to the E, we're gonna move to the E flat. So that's your minor fd. Now, because we've done a minor fd, the next move we're going to do is a major ft. So while we're looking for the major fd, one string down and one flat bite. And the octave doesn't change, so what we got to do is replicate that same ship. And then I move up to that octa position again. So, identical pattern shape on the minor again. The only thing that's different is we are flattening that fd. So you can practice that moving across from various positions. Do you remember when we are looking at the movement from the G to the B string, we have got there's a minor furd because we're talking a major fd, then we're looking for is actually directly underneath that nut. Oh. Like that. Now, what you can do is take our movement that we was looking at, which was that one, six, four, five, and just play that across the fretboard. So we've got this I shall C, move down to the A. Down to our F. Big stretch here. And then to the G. O I and then back. Like that. Nice little exercise getting you moving across these linear tracks for better description of what we're looking at there. Of course, once you've done the ascending, you want to be looking at the descending lines that you can play from that. Oh, without making it complicated yourself, I would just work down. When you're playing these different notes that you're looking at. 6. Expanded Triad Ideas: Now what I'm going to do in this next section is I am going to utilize the various triad shapes, positions that we've learned so far and connect them over the six, one, four, five progression with the CA minus, the F and the G. So I'll just plate it through, and then I will break down exactly what I have been doing. So it goes like this. So what I do, I starting off with that C major tract just using that usual. But this time, I included the octave 'cause I'm trying to get one and two, and or one, two, three, four, whichever way you look at the beat, but I'm getting this one root, major, minor octave. Now I am playing that descending A minor, so I'm picking up here the A, moving down to the D to E. And then to the C and then picking up the root null. So just moving down that A minus triad. Now I'm picking up the F cub, but I'm using that shape than I did here because it's right next to where I am. Picking up the F Major third to the fifth and then across to the octave. Then I'm just moving up two frets and I'm doing a descending version of that. Now I'm moving across to the C position, which is that ten fret on the D string, and I'm playing that tried again there. So I'm playing root, major third. Perfect fifth to the octave. Now I'm picking up an A minor. So I'm going up to this position here, I'm utilizing my little finger. So I'm coming down to the A. Five, to the C, which is the perfect the flat third, to the octave. And then just picking up that last note there I'm coming back down here to the E. Now I'm using the first inversion of the Fs. Instead of startinging here on the Fne, I'm picking up the A. And then just as it's so easy to do it. I'm just moving up to frets and doing the opposite. And then I just finished off by resolving bit and C. Oh, something you can practice there, taking nice and slow. Yeah, and then Nice little exercise for you, just picking up on expositions. Now there is never a wrong answer for using these trial inversions over any code progression, whether you want to move up and down the fretboard, make it look it by plyivia, tally up to yourself. Just get used to using these different shapes. When you're doing the descending paths, they can be a little bit tougher. So I would recommend when you're doing descending patterns, look for them and price them, see what the art ascending, and then get used to playing the descending patterns of that. Then you'll be able to utilize them a lot more in your playing.