The Dan Thorpe Acoustic Academy
June 2022 – Week 2
Triads! – Getting Started
Part 1 – What Are Triads?
Triads are great fun. I see them almost like a hybrid between rhythm and lead guitar. As you will see they have the harmonic quality of a chord but the melodic nature of lead guitar. In this first lesson we quickly introduce and cover some of the theory and fun possibilities triads allow. Use this lesson along with the TAB for best results.
Part 2 – Your First Two Triad Shapes
Now, we get to the nitty gritty. In this lesson you’ll learn how to play triad versions of Am and F. Plus, you will learn how to jam them in a few simple and confidence building ways. Take your time, this may be new to you, so do be patient!
Next week Parts 3 and 4 will be released. There we will take the above lessons and really run with them!
As always, watch the videos multiple times. Triads may be a brand new concept for many of you. The key thing is to be very patient. They are great fun and can really open up many new doors in your playing, now and in the future, so stick with them if they appeal to you!
Do leave a comment below and share your thoughts on this lesson. Most of all, enjoy!
Looking at triads again, I think when I get several down I’ll play my own cool sound or song up and down the neck with fingerpicking!☺️
Great stuff, and glad to hear it. I love the triads and all the interesting possibilities they can give! Keep having fun with them! 🙂
I am still out of town and had to extend my trip. But I am watching the videos and doing what you had suggested in an email; visualizing. It’s certainly not the same as actually playing the guitar but I am learning the triads. Can’t wait to get home and practice this on the guitar!!
Pleased to hear how it helped. Yeah, nothing beats real practice but visualisation is super useful – especially in your current situation. Hope you have fun when you get back to your guitar! 🙂
This is great. Love the touch of theory and the connection with the barre chord lesson which seems like triads across any three strings so to speak.
Glad to hear it. For sure, yeah, both help move around the fretboard and both will help connect various dots in your playing. Glad you’re enjoying them so far. 🙂
So-if I understand this correctly-if I move the D triad pattern up and down the fretboard I get a major triad with the root note on the B string. For example 10th fret on B string is A with the G string note being E and the high E note being C# hence triad is A major. Similar for the minor scale, but the root note is on high E ?
Yep, Martin. Nice understanding of the theory behind it. You nailed it with the Major. The root note is indeed on the B string. (As for the D minor triad shape, it still has the root on the B string – it’s just the shape is different to the Major shape. It’s beyond what we’ve covered here but do let me know if that makes sense. 🙂
Yep – got it thanks.
Ace, that’s great to know. 🙂
I cannot get my mind around triads.. yes I understand that it is 3 of the notes of a chord played together , but cannot understand the relevance. You say you can play them anywhere on the fretboard??? So if I took D chord at second and third fret (A,D F#) and just keep moving it along the fretboard, are these Triads?? Sorry to sounds so ignorant
Hi Gideon, yep, you got it. Take those three notes and play them anywhere and that is a D triad. I often like to think of them as mini chords. The real use is that you can play jangly, bright and melodic chords higher up the fretboard which adds more excitement than the same old open string versions. Hope that makes sense. 🙂
Yes, indeed! That makes sense. I’ve been working on triads for a while. Triads will help me know my way around the fretboard better and I hope to get to interjecting triads into a song.
I must also get back to barre chords as I now refuse to let them beat me.
Pleased to hear it on both counts! Both are definitely useful and as you keep developing, they will be even more so. Keep at it and keep having fun! 🙂
Interesting lesson Dan had never heard of triads before. Enjoying it very much. Loving the layout of lessons for this month.
Thanks, Angie. Pleased to hear it and great that you’ve got a new potential string to your bow now. Keep enjoying! 🙂
Very well introduced subject! There seems to be so many different things you can do on guitar. I need to get a looper now, time to learn the fret board, thank you Dan!! It is very slow going for me, trying to get my first song nailed down ,but look forward to learning triads and experimenting. This is definitely a life long learning adventure ☺️.
Thanks, Diane. Yeah, that was the hope with this lesson… To open up some new possibilities for you all. Glad it has done. Later you can always go deeper on this subject (I’m happy to expand upon it if you members want that too). Keep your main focus on the song, and then dabble with this lesson as and when you like. And yeah, keep enjoying the never-ending journey. 🙂
Another well explained lesson but it is going to take me a long time as I can’t get my head around the fretboard. I am so lucky to have your book Guitarists Get Theory which explains all aspects of the fretboard and I can sit with it in front of me and work out where all the notes are, it’s just my memory that is terrible. Maybe actually putting it into practice in the lessons will help instead of thinking of it in tab form.
Thanks, Joanne. Start by enjoying the shapes and sounds. Then when you are ready, pick one triad shape from the lesson and use that to learn the notes on the fretboard. As it’s just 3 notes, it can help you get a kind of marker point for specific notes on the fretboard. You can use the lessons and fretboard diagrams in the Guitarists Get Theory book to help too. Most of all, take your time and have fun. 🙂
Downloaded the tab for the triad lesson part one.
I’ve always liked the sound of dropping the d chord down a fret and then up a fret and doing a little fingerpicking thing with it.
Good stuff, Roxanne, and yeah, that’s cool. Playing about with shapes like that is great. Nice and creative! 🙂
Never heard the term triad before, much less a thorough explanation. I’m going to be hunting and pecking for a while for sure. Don’t know my fretboard well at all. 😊
Good stuff, Larry. Take your time with the lesson and enjoy. Some magical sounds can be created with triads and when you are ready to study them deeper they will help you understand the fretboard for sure (pick one shape to study at first though). Enjoy! 🙂
Been interested in these for a while now, have used my own interpretation when playing some John Prine songs . Never new what l was doing just like the sound. As for remembering the fretboard the low and high E strings are ok they have a pattern , the strings inbetween are something else for this old memory to absorb. Anyway onwards and upwards, if l can learn anything from the lessons then l will give it my best. Thanks Dan
Good stuff, John. They are a little different but really useful for sure. Have fun just playing with them, and then to learn the notes on the fretboard, it’s good to pick one shape from the lesson and study what the notes are on the fretboard for that shape. Most of all, have fun. 🙂
Good point , thanks will try memorizing that way, sounds good. By the way ought to have been a ‘I’m in front of that ‘new’ word. Not being lazy just didn’t notice I til now.🤠
Glad to hear it, John! And no problem at all. 🙂
Part one, omg, thank you for a very clear explanation! It totally makes sense. I am glad you provided some more theory this month. I love that I keep learning more and more theory. It all is really all coming together. I have a book on theory that I use but it helps now and then when you bring it to DTAA. Will dive into part two in a bit😎
Ace. Pleased to hear it. Triads can be awkward to explain, so pleased to know it made sense so far! One of the benefits of triads is that they help theory become more practical which is always a good thing! Keep enjoying it! 🙂