Triads and the acoustic rhythm guitarist

[OliveCorduroy]

Hello all,

So I am at a point where I need some help in determining which direction to go with my playing. My interest is primarily with playing rhythm guitar as opposed to any lead stuff or finger style at this point. Singer/songwriter kind of thing.

I have my open chords down, my barre chords down, and I can make the changes adequately with some fairly accurate strumming. Not really knowing where to go next I thought learning new voicings for the chords I know so this has lead me to learning triads. I have just learned the major and minor chord shapes on the three highest strings and I am starting to get used to learning where the chords and notes are on the fretboard.

So with all that said, I am just wondering if learning triads is something that is going to be useful to me and worth all the effort in learning the shapes on the 2/3/4 strings and the 3/4/5 strings. I have no problem putting in the effort I just want to make sure triads are important with regards to the acoustic guitar.

Thanks,
George

[Shimmy]

Ain't nothing wrong with triads! You could try learning the CAGED shapes, which would fit nicely with learning triads and their inversions, as well as give you some new chord grips/voicings.

Have you learnt things like Maj7, Min7, Dom and Diminished chords and how they work and are used? That would go well with learning about diatonic harmony which would be super beneficial for learning songs quickly, arranging/transposing songs and writing your own stuff. These are important skills for the rhythm guitarist.

Chances are based on what you've said so far, if you were coming to me for lessons, this kind of thing would possibly be what I would be doing with you.

[MC5C]

Triads are important in music, but I would argue not all that important if your goad is strumming chords behind a singer. For that, you just need to know the chords that you need to be able to play. Where triads come in is when you want to go beyond knowing one way to play a particular chord to give a different feel.

A typical triad is the 1, 3, 5 of a scale, and is the basic major chord. You can play it that way, for some chords, but you can also play it 1, 5, 3 - real common, the basic E shape. You can flatten the 3 and have all the minor chords. You can add the 7 or the b7 and have all the major, minor and dominant 7th chords. You can flatten the 5th in a minor 7 chord, and have a m7b5, aka a half diminished chord. You can flatten the 7th twice, and have a diminished chord. You can also memorize one simple shape, and have every diminished chord under your fingers if you just slide that shape up or down the neck. If you play triads as arpeggios you get a lot of useful fills and passing lines.

What it boils down to is that if you want to play chords, triads and what you can do with them is the next step past just learning shapes and going to what makes music work. Good to learn triads.

[jseth]

As a rhythm guitarist, triads of different chords can come in very handy; they are useful in "breaking up the monotony" of a set of simple changes, they can add color and dimension to areas in a song that need it. So, certainly, learning triads is important and useful!

The MAIN thing as a rhythm player is to KEEP THE GROOVE SOLID... with that in mind, using alternate chord shapes can be nice additions, so long as you adhere to the primary dictum: KEEP THAT GROOVE GOING...

Whatever tempo, whatever accents you choose to use for a given song, the task at hand is to truly "sit back in that pocket" and bring it home...

Pay attention to your dynamics, learning to soften passages as well as being bolder, stronger on some passages... remember, if you START playing as loud as you can, there really is no where to go from there... dynamics are critical to a good groove, to playing great rhythm guitar.

Work on the accuracy of your picking hand: strive to strike the strings you want/need to play in order to bring the song along... mess around with it; sometimes focus on just the lower strings and add the rest of the strings as the song dictates.

Learn to play with the same intensity when you play softly as when you play harder... learn to do this while keeping the tempo and groove of the song steady and solid...

As a solo acoustic guitarist/singer, establishing a good groove for any song is a HUGE part of sounding great and accompanying your voice in the best way possible.

[DupleMeter]

YES!

This is so very much worth your time. Triads are the foundation of harmony. Get all the 3 adjacent string voicing down (1-2-3, 2-3-4, 3-4-5 & 4-5-6). I used to make my students do this until they had them cold. Then I did the same with sevenths (maj7, min7 & dom7).

This is time well spent and will only help everything else you do with music.

[rick-slo]

Memorizing triad patterns is helpful, whether or not you know the names. Perhaps most useful are those on stings 2-3-4.
For example A major chord triad (with inversions) fretting on strings 4-3-2 are:
2-2-2
7-6-5
11-9-10
14-14-14
Do the same for all the other major chord triads.

Minor chord triads, Am
2-2-1
7-5-5
10-9-10
14-14-13
Do the same for all other minor chord triads.

E6, and etc.

[RodB]

Yes, knowing and using triads is a useful part of your toolkit.

For solid rhythm playing it helps to get away from the open position and without having to hold a barre all the time a lot can be done on all the inner 4 strings as well.
Less onerous on the hand and fingers if that is an issue, able to change shapes relatively quickly if someone struggles to get clean notes right across the strings, but for rhythm playing perhaps most importantly by varying pressure of the fingers as you strum you can briefly stop the notes ringing, giving a punchier, crisper sound.

[OliveCorduroy]

Thank you all for all of your comments and advice. It has helped me a great deal and gave me a lot to think about with regards to what my goals are both short-term and long-term and what to do to get there.

All of your comments were that triads would be very helpful to know so I took some time and looked at some of the major triad shapes on all the strings. I definitely can see how they can really change the way progressions can sound when compared to them in the open position. Some I think I can get down while others even though they may look easy in the chord diagrams are actually quite difficult to finger. Certainly, it will take a lot of time to play with some grace but I think it will be fun. I am hopeful.

Also, there were some comments to learn some other chord shapes like min7, maj7, dom7, etc. chords. I agree, I think they can really add some color to my straightforward chord progressions. I really look forward to working on these and incorporating them into my playing.

Again, thank you...George

[amyFB]

Originally Posted by DupleMeter

YES!

This is so very much worth your time. Triads are the foundation of harmony. Get all the 3 adjacent string voicing down (1-2-3, 2-3-4, 3-4-5 & 4-5-6). I used to make my students do this until they had them cold. Then I did the same with sevenths (maj7, min7 & dom7).

This is time well spent and will only help everything else you do with music.

My playing changed 1000% for the better when I was introduced to, and learned, the triads on the top three strings.

do it!

[Howard Klepper]

Sure, learning the inversions of triads all over the neck can help you.

But from the way you describe your immediate goal--to accompany yourself by strumming--you would find it far more useful to learn moveable forms of chords that are extended beyond the triad.

My recommendation: get Book 1 of Mickey Baker's course in "Jazz and Hot Guitar." Lesson 1 on page 1 has almost all the chords you need to know to comp on jazz and popular music. The next few lessons will help you develop technique with them.

[jseth]

Originally Posted by Howard Klepper

Sure, learning the inversions of triads all over the neck can help you.

But from the way you describe your immediate goal--to accompany yourself by strumming--you would find it far more useful to extend your knowledge of moveable chords that are extended beyond the triad.

My recommendation: get Book 1 of Mickey Baker's course in "Jazz and Hot Guitar. Lesson 1 on page 1 has almost all the chords you need to know to comp on jazz and popular music. The next few lessons will help you develop technique with them.

Absolutely a HUGE + for that first Mickey Baker book! Well worth the price for just that first page of chords!!! (And there's plenty of great information after that, too...)

I would also say to explore your "thirds and sixths"; major chord scales using third and sixth intervals can add lots of color and depth to rhythm playing, especially in conjunction with any "extended chord" discovery, but useful with open chord positions as well...