The Triad Challenge: Find Every Triad on All Four String Sets

This week I have a challenge for you. I want you to find your triads on sets of three strings.

What I mean is that I want you to find all of the triads for one particular chord on the low three strings: E, A and D.

Then again on the A, D and G strings.

And then again on the D, G and B strings.

And finally, on the G, B and high E strings.

That’s four string sets, one chord, all the way across the neck. It seems complicated, but stick with me.

Why this is worth a week of your practice

This exercise does a multitude of things for you:

• It helps you find your chords a lot quicker in every position on the neck
• It gets you started down the CAGED path
• It helps you find your chord tones fast when you are playing lead

Those are all really great things, and they all come out of this one drill.

Start in C

Start with C, and at the end I encourage you to try it in a bunch of different keys.

A triad in C major is a root, a third and a fifth. So all I need to do is take a C major scale and count the first five notes: C, D, E, F, G.

I really only need three of them: C, E, G.

Now I need to find those three notes as triads all across the neck, on each set of three strings.

String set one: E, A and D

Start on the low E string and find the C note; that’s the 8th fret.

From there, this is position one of the major scale, so I can quickly count up.

One, two, three for the third, then four, five for the fifth. That puts the third on the 7th fret of the A string and the fifth on the 5th fret of the D string.

If you do not know that particular shape in that spot, it’s no problem. Maybe you know the position 4 shape with the root note on the A string. Count up from there instead and find your five that way.

Either road gets you to G, E, C; there is your triad on the bottom three strings.

String set two: A, D and G

Find the C note on the 3rd fret of the A string.

Once you know that is your root, you should recognize it. That is just the basis of your regular open C chord.

Count it out: one, then one, two, three puts the third on the 2nd fret of the D string. Then four, five.

And if you remember how the guitar is tuned, once you get to the 5th fret of the D string, that is G, which is your open G string. And there is your triad.

String set three: D, G and B

Here you can choose how you want to approach it.

Here’s how I do it: that C on the 10th fret of the D string is the octave of the C on the 8th fret of the low E.

Anytime you have those octaves, that is just the basis of your E shaped barre chord. So from there I follow that chord shape through and pull out the one, three and five, because it continues through the scale the same way.

That is typically how I approach these in my head. I find the octave, see the bar chord, and pull the triad out of it.

String set four: G, B and high E

For the last three strings I look at that C note again.

The octave is on the 5th fret of the G string, up from that 3rd fret A string C. And if you look at it, that looks just like your A chord shape.

From there, take the top of those strings, C, E, G, and you have the triad.

Why four string sets and not six

This is a small thing but it confuses people the first time.

A six string guitar gives you four groups of three adjacent strings: E-A-D, A-D-G, D-G-B, G-B-E.

Every major or minor triad in every key lives somewhere on each of those four sets, in three different inversions. So the complete map for one chord is twelve shapes.

That sounds like a lot until you notice that you already play most of them. Every open chord and every bar chord you know is two or three of these triads stacked together. You’re not learning twelve new things, you’re learning to see the pieces of what’s already in your hands.

The one thing that makes the B string annoying

This is worth warning you about, because it will trip you up on the last two string sets.

The guitar is tuned in fourths, except between the G and the B strings, which is a third. That one irregularity is why chord shapes look different once they cross onto the B string.

So the triad shape you found on the E-A-D set will not look identical when you move it to the D-G-B set or the G-B-E set; the fingering shifts by a fret.

This is not you doing it wrong, trust that it’s the guitar. Every player deals with it, and the fix is just to learn those two sets as their own thing rather than expecting the pattern to transfer.

What are inversions?

You’ll notice as you go that your three notes don’t always come in the order root, third, fifth. Sometimes the fifth is on the bottom and sometimes the third is.

That’s called an inversion. I know it can sound complicated, but just stick with me. It’s the same three notes, just a different one at the bottom of the stack.

• Root position: root on the bottom
• First inversion: third on the bottom
• Second inversion: fifth on the bottom

All three are still the chord, they just have different weights to them. The root position sounds settled and blunt, so the inversions sound lighter and more like they want to move somewhere.

You don’t need to label them while you’re doing this drill, but it’s useful to know that when the same chord sounds a bit different in a different spot, that’s why; it isn’t your imagination.

And it’s why this drill gives you twelve shapes per chord rather than four.

Now do it everywhere

This works for every chord, in every key. It does not matter if it is major or minor, C major just happened to be the example.

Please use it in minor too. Go find all of your C minor triads the same way, on all four string sets.

It works everywhere, and it gets you really good at finding where all of your chord tones are, and where your chords are in general.

Turning C major into C minor

Since I mentioned minor, here’s how little work it takes.

A major triad is a root, a third and a fifth. A minor triad is a root, a flat third and a fifth.

So essentially, one note changes. The third comes down a half step, and that’s the difference between them.

So every triad you just found for C major becomes C minor by moving one finger back one fret. You don’t need to go hunting for new shapes or start the process over.

Do the whole drill in C major first, then run the exact same four string sets again, but this time flattening that third each time. It’ll take you a quarter as long the second time, and you’ll have both qualities mapped across the neck.

That’s also the fastest way to learn which note in each shape is the third because it’s the one you keep having to move.

Common mistakes

• Finding the notes but not knowing which is which: You should be able to say “that’s the fifth” for every note you land on, otherwise it’s a pattern and not knowledge.
• Skipping the middle string sets: A-D-G and D-G-B are the awkward ones and also the most useful ones.
• Expecting the shapes to transfer across the B string: They definitely won’t; See above for more info.
• Doing it once and moving on: One key a week every week is the pace that works.
• Only playing them, never using them: Once you’ve found them, play them over a backing track in that key. That’s where it turns into music

Here’s what to practice:

1. Day one: string set one, E-A-D. Find the triad and say the note names out loud
2. Day two: string set two, A-D-G
3. Day three: string set three, D-G-B, and expect the shape to shift
4. Day four: string set four, G-B-E
5. Day five: all four sets, one after another, up the neck
6. Day six: the same four sets in minor
7. Day seven: play them over a backing track in that key

Do it in one key this week, then pick a new key next week.