Triad Soloing on Guitar: Turn Chord Tones into Phrases
By Daniel Weiss · Published · Updated
Soloing with triads means building a phrase from the three notes of the chord, then moving it with the harmony. Below is one short phrase, played plain and then developed, over a chord change.
Play this first: one phrase, two versions
Two bars, C then Dm, four beats each. Press Play the phrase, then With the chords, then Loop to keep it going.
The notes are computed in standard tuning from the moves Daniel names in the video. This is an example built for this page, not a transcription of his playing.
1. C (root over C), string 3, fret 5, beat 1; 2. E (3rd over C), string 2, fret 5, beat 2; 3. G (5th over C), string 1, fret 3, beat 3; 4. E (3rd over C), string 2, fret 5, beat 4; 5. D (root over Dm), string 3, fret 7, beat 1; 6. F (3rd over Dm), string 2, fret 6, beat 2; 7. A (5th over Dm), string 1, fret 5, beat 3; 8. F (3rd over Dm), string 2, fret 6, beat 4
Play this. Play the four notes of each bar yourself, one per beat, over the chords. Listen for each chord named by its three notes: C, E, G over C, then D, F, A over Dm.
1. C (root over C), string 3, fret 5, beat 1; 2. D (scale note, not a chord tone over C), string 2, fret 3, beat 1.5; 3. E (3rd over C), string 2, fret 5, beat 2; 4. F# (chromatic note, outside C major over C), string 1, fret 2, beat 2.5; 5. G (5th over C), string 1, fret 3, beat 3; 6. F (scale note, not a chord tone over C), string 2, fret 6, beat 3.5; 7. E (3rd over C), string 2, fret 5, beat 4; 8. D (root over Dm), string 3, fret 7, beat 1; 9. E (scale note, not a chord tone over Dm), string 2, fret 5, beat 1.5; 10. F (3rd over Dm), string 2, fret 6, beat 2; 11. G# (chromatic note, outside C major over Dm), string 1, fret 4, beat 2.5; 12. A (5th over Dm), string 1, fret 5, beat 3; 13. G (scale note, not a chord tone over Dm), string 1, fret 3, beat 3.5; 14. F (3rd over Dm), string 2, fret 6, beat 4
Play this. Keep the four chord tones on beats 1 to 4 and add the notes between them. Listen for the dashed F# leaning into G and the dashed G# leaning into A: each is a half step below the note it leads to.
How to use triads in guitar solos: aim, then decorate
Choose the chord tone you want to land on. Then decorate the way there.
“Always landing on strong beats with my chord tones.”
Daniel Weiss, 12 Levels of Soloing with the Most Beautiful Triads, said over an augmented triad while adding chromatic notes (2:29, YouTube auto-captions)
In the phrase that is beats 1 to 4. Everything between them is decoration.
- Know the triads. In C major they are C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am and Bdim. Daniel calls them the seven degrees (0:34).
- Approach from a half step below. “I can approach it from a half step below, then playing it.” (3:40). In the phrase, F# leads into G and G# leads into A.
- Add scale notes around the arpeggio. D sits between C and E, and F between G and E. These are notes of the key, not chord tones.
- Move it with the key. Daniel moves each idea on to the next triad: he says to “move that diatonically” (3:49). Bar 2 is bar 1 moved up one scale note.
Here is Daniel on the notes around the arpeggio.
“You see, these are still notes within the scale, but they’re complementing my arpeggio, because everything is about diatonic awareness.”
Daniel Weiss, from the video above (5:45)
If you play pentatonic
The minor pentatonic you already know contains a minor triad. In A minor, A, C and E are the triad, and D and G are the two added notes (computed).
“If you think about a G minor pentatonic, it’s actually a G minor triad where you also add the four and the seven.”
Daniel Weiss, in a lesson (5 August 2026, Zoom captions)
So the scale you know already holds chord tones to aim at.
Five ideas for triad soloing, with times
These are the five soloing ideas from the video, after the triads themselves, in his order. The phrase above uses the second and the fourth.
| Idea | In his words | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Triads in one position | “limit yourself to one position” | 2:31 |
| Chromatic approaches | “approach it from a half step below” | 3:30 |
| String skipping | “I can skip a string” | 4:28 |
| Notes around the arpeggio | “complementing my arpeggio” | 5:25 |
| Enclosures | “my cage around the note” | 6:07 |
Take one at a time. After the second and the fourth, string skipping and the enclosure are the next two to try, in his order.
Daniel plays the enclosure as a cage around the target:
“This is my cage around the note, and then the note.”
Daniel Weiss, from the video above (6:36)
When the chord changes: the same note, a new job
A note is a chord tone only against the chord under it. Here is every note of the phrase, over each chord.
| Note | Over C | Over Dm |
|---|---|---|
| C | root (chord tone) | b7 |
| D | 2nd | root (chord tone) |
| E | 3rd (chord tone) | 2nd |
| F | 4th | b3 (chord tone) |
| G | 5th (chord tone) | 4th |
| A | 6th | 5th (chord tone) |
E and G name C. Over Dm they are a 2nd and a 4th, so they no longer name the chord.
F is the telling one. Over C it is a passing note a half step above the 3rd; over Dm it is the 3rd, the note that makes the chord minor.
Common mistake: sliding the shape instead of moving it with the key
Slide the C shape up two frets and it still looks like a triad. It is D major, not Dm: the F# lands where the chord has F.
1. D (root over Dm), string 3, fret 7, beat 1; 2. F# (a major 3rd: not in Dm and not in C major over Dm), string 2, fret 7, beat 2; 3. A (5th over Dm), string 1, fret 5, beat 3; 4. F# (a major 3rd: not in Dm and not in C major over Dm), string 2, fret 7, beat 4
Play this. Play the slid shape over Dm, then the plain Dm bar from the chart above. Listen for the F# rubbing against the chord’s F, and for the F that fits.
The fix is to move each note to the next scale note. C goes to D, E to F, G to A, so two strings move two frets and the B string moves one.
Sometimes the shape does slide. From Dm to Em every note moves a whole step, so D, F, A becomes E, G, B two frets higher.
Practice this today
Take the plain version first, with the chords, and say each job as you land: root, 3rd, 5th.
Then add one thing at a time. First the half-step approach, as Daniel plays it at 3:30. Then the scale notes, as he plays them at 5:25.
You are ready to move on when you can move the plain version from Dm to Em without looking: E, G, B, G on the G, B and e strings at frets 9, 8, 7, 8 (computed).
Where to go next
This page is the step before voice leading: aim at a chord tone, and know which chord tone to aim at next. These pages go with it.
- Guitar Triads: The Complete Guide, for where the triad shapes sit on the neck
- Guitar Arpeggios, for seventh chords
- The guitar improvisation guide, for building a phrase into a solo
More from Daniel on the same idea: The 10 Levels of Major Triad Soloing, over a C7 loop, where he says “I’m really aiming into those actual target tones” (4:08, auto-captions). 12 Levels of Soloing with the Most Beautiful Triads goes further, into augmented triads and the altered scale.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I practice diatonic triads so they actually help my soloing?
- Learn the seven triads of C major, then play them in one position and in inversions, as Daniel does at 0:34 and 1:12. Then put a phrase on them, as in the chart above.
- What’s the difference between playing triads on three strings versus two strings?
- Daniel shows both, the three-string shapes first and then two strings, for example the A and D strings (1:24). His point is that it changes the way you build lines later, especially over chord changes.
- How do chromatic approaches work with triad arpeggios?
- You play a note a half step below the chord tone, then the chord tone. In the phrase above, F# leads into G and G# leads into A.
- Why should I limit myself to one position when learning triads?
- Daniel’s advice is to “limit yourself to one position” (2:36), and to practice in one position as well as horizontally, for freedom in your lines (3:05).