Have you ever felt that no matter how hard you practiced Barre Chords (or any larger chord pattern) you just couldn't get them to sound very good? Maybe the reach was too hard to make, or the notes wouldn't ring out clearly. Whatever it was that held you back, the work that you may have put in always seemed to show little to no results...




In this lesson, I’m going to show you a much easier way to deal with triads. This approach is so simple that you will no longer think that triads are "hard." 

This method will focus on learning easier /smaller shapes that are played on the top three guitar strings.

Between the number of times that you have knowingly and unknowingly trained on triads, you'll quickly appreciate the concept of hitting these smaller /easier patterns with an upper 3-string exercise that will allow for a much faster development of the triad chord technique.

WATCH THE VIDEO:






So, you’re having trouble working on triads?
I know that trying to develop triads through barre chords can be a real challenge, but I can help you by showing you the smaller more manageable upper register shapes.

When I was just starting out as a student of guitar I really liked the chords that Andy Summers was playing in all those Police hits like, “Roxanne” and “Walking on the Moon.”

Those small chords (played across the upper strings), were very cool sounding. After practicing them, I came to realize that there’s only a small number of those shapes for both the Major and the Minor Triads.

The good news is that with the right practice routine combined with perseverance, triads on the upper strings can be easily learned by anyone.





TRIAD EXERCISE:
Let's perform a triad exercise using the upper strings to demonstrate exactly how these chord shapes can be applied into a practice routine.


Major Triads - Upper Register:


Major Triads - Lower Register:




I still have more triads to go over with you, but I wanted to take a minute to let you know, that if you have an interest in expanding this knowledge out to using the barre chords, then I’d like to make you a great offer.

With any donation over $5, or any merchandise purchase from either my Tee-Spring, or my Zazzle store, I’ll send you a free copy of THREE of my most popular digital handouts.

One is called, “Harmonized Arpeggio Drills” (it’ll train you on developing your diatonic arpeggios).

Another one is my “Barre Chord” handout which includes a page showing all the key signatures along with a chord progression that applies barre chords.

Plus, you’ll get my Notation Pack! It has 8 pages of important guitar worksheets for notating anything related to; music charts, guitar chord diagrams, and TAB.

Just send me an email off of the contact page of CreativeGuitarStudio.com to let me know about either your donation or your Merchandise purchase and I’ll email you those digital handouts within 24 hrs.




Minor Triads - Upper Register:



Minor Triads - Lower Register:





Now that you have an understanding for how to work through an upper string triad exercise, the next thing we'll do, is learn more about each triad individually.

We'll focus on the root notes and also start getting a better grasp of the way these shapes can be applied.






APPLICATION:
Once you have a handle on the chord shapes and you fully understand the root note locations, your next practice direction (with these triads), will be to apply these chords within progressions that feature a number of chord changes.

With a busy chord progression, you’ll not only get to apply these chords, but you’ll be using them in one of the best situations that they can be placed into, (which is within chord progressions where several chords pass by in a short time frame). 


Here’s an example of a busy chord progression:




CONCLUSION:
By spending the time on studying these very versatile upper string triad chord patterns, you’ll find that it will become much easier to play chord progressions that move through a lot of chords within a short time frame.

And, once you understand where the root notes are, and you become familiar with how these chords can be applied musically, you’ll find yourself grabbing for these shapes during not only your rhythm guitar playing, but also during your lead playing as well.