Master Major Triads: The Ultimate Guide for Guitar Players

Want to learn all major triads on guitar? This guide covers every major triad shape across all four string sets, with inversions, voice leading paths, and practical exercises.

Hi everyone, how’s it going? Today we’re going to talk about triads and how you can start creating lines with them. The first thing we want to do is put a few exercises into your muscle memory to help you create lines and expand your horizons with soloing. Watch this video all the way through, and at the end, I’ll show you how everything connects.

The first thing I want to show you is that when it comes to triads, you just need to be aware of the diatonic degrees in C major. That means: C, D minor, E minor, F, G, A minor, B diminished, back to C. Those are our seven degrees.

The most basic way to approach this is to be able to play these triads on free strings and move up with those shapes. Start with a C major example and move it up in the diatonic degrees. That’s your first step. Then, be able to see that with inversions. For example, if I take this C first inversion triad, be able to move that up as well:

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And, of course, start creating arpeggios and lines with them. Another way to play triads is just on two strings. For example, if you only use the A string and D string, you can create these arpeggios:

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First degree, second degree, etc.

If I take another inversion, let’s say the second inversion of C, this would be:

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Second inversion of C, B diminished, A minor, G.

You can also play triads and observe them on two strings, not only on free strings. That’s something to think about in practice, as it will influence the way you create lines later and the flow you have on the instrument, especially when playing over chord changes or creating different beautiful sounds, whether diatonic or out-of-key sounds on a one-chord vamp.

Now, just before we move on to the next idea, please make sure to like this video, subscribe, and hit that bell so you don’t miss any of my videos.

Another thing you can start doing to challenge yourself is playing within one position. Instead of going all over the neck looking for stuff, limit yourself to one position. That’s also good for soloing, but that’s another video I’ll tell you about at the end.

All of this is about being able to play the diatonic triads in one position as well as horizontally. Super important if you want to create freedom in your lines.

Another thing you can start doing is adding chromatic approaches. Let’s take this A minor triad on two strings. Instead of just playing it, you can approach it from a half step below and then play it. You can also move that diatonically:

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Something you can practice is string skipping. For example, check this out. This is just a C major arpeggio, but if I want a more legato sound, instead of placing this G note here, I can play it on the G string and then skip a string to get this sound:

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Then, you can move that and implement it all the way diatonically:

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Whenever we’re talking about creating lines, it’s not enough to just play the actual arpeggios. We want to start implementing and combining different notes. For example, I can play this arpeggio, but then I can add some movement, maybe like this:

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You see, these are still notes within the scale, but they complement my arpeggio because everything is about diatonic awareness.

If I take this to the next degree:

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I’m not really thinking; it’s all in my muscle memory so I can create those lines on the spot.

If you’ve been watching this channel for a while, you know how much I love talking about enclosures. For me, enclosures are like capturing the note with a cage before stating it. In this case, if I want to play this C major arpeggio with string skipping, I can approach it with that cage. This is the enclosure. You can see this is my cage around the note and then the note, and then I can play my arpeggio. So I get this:

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And of course, I can do that with any other degree of C major:

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That’s exactly why I created the Galactic Modern Guitar Series, where I show all of the different core fundamental elements to solidify your harmonic and melodic awareness and control on guitar. You can learn all the most core elements of music and immediately start applying them to your solos and creating beautiful melodic lines. Check that out in the link in the description below.

Practicing all of this will definitely boost your muscle memory and creativity. But if you want to understand how to create actual phrasing with it, I invite you to check out this arpeggio lesson over here:

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