In this installment Triad Improvisation Part 3. We will take a look at triads on the 5,4,3 strings of the guitar.  Again we will use the major chord forms as a reference to the rest of the triads to keep things simple. The major form is the first chord in each example followed by augmented,minor then diminished. You should also memorize each form!

• Form 1.

|----------|
|----------|
|----4-----|
|----5-----|
|----5-----|
|----------|

Example 1.

    Major     Aug.     Minor     Dim.
|------------------|---------------------|
|------------------|---------------------|
|-----4-4------4-4-|-----3-3------3-3----|
|---5--------5-----|---5--------5--------|
|-5--------6-------|-5--------4----------|
|------------------|---------------------|

Listen to Example 1.

• Form 2.

|----------|
|----------|
|----7-----|
|----9-----|
|---10-----|
|----------|

Example 2.

     Major     Aug.      Minor      Dim. 
|--------------------|------------------------|
|--------------------|------------------------|
|------7-7-------8-8-|-------7-7-------6-6----|
|----9---------9-----|-----8---------8--------|
|-10--------10-------|--10--------10----------|
|--------------------|------------------------|

• Form 3.
  

|----------|
|----------|
|---12-----|
|---12-----|
|---14-----|
|----------|

Example 3.

      Major       Aug.           Minor       Dim. 
|---------------------------|------------------------------|
|---------------------------|------------------------------|
|-------12-12--------12-12--|--------12-12--------12-12----|
|----12-----------13--------|-----12-----------11----------|
|-14-----------14-----------|--13-----------13-------------|
|---------------------------|------------------------------|

Now when we put them all together we have a total of 12 chords.
3 Major
3 Augmented
3 Minor
3 Diminished

Example 4.

     Major      Augmented      Minor       Diminished
|------------|-------------|-------------|--------------|
|------------|-------------|-------------|--------------|
|-4---7--12--|--4---8--12--|--3---7--12--|-3---6--12----|
|-5---9--12--|--5---9--13--|--5---8--12--|-5---8--11----|
|-5--10--14--|--6--10--14--|--5--10--13--|-4--10--13----|
|------------|-------------|-------------|--------------|

Listen to Example 4.

You should now have a clear understanding how these triads work
on the guitars fretboard. We have one set of 3 to do which is the 6,5,4 strings, once we finish you will see arpeggios form in three positions for each triad type. More on this later....

If you missed Part 1 and 2  go to the links below.