Triads by Request!

Last week Thomas, one of my email readers requested a more in-depth guitar lesson on triads. Although I had touched on the subject in my Beginner Chord Guide (as well as the 7 Day Practice Routine).. maybe a refresher lesson was worth a look.

I like to teach triads in the context of a whole key, in this case the key of C Major:

C D E F G A B C

If we stay only in this C Major Scale and build (1-3-5) diatonic triads off of every scale degree, we get:

CEG - (C Major)
DFA - (d minor)
EGB - (e minor)
FAC - (F Major)
GBD - (G Major)
ACE - (a minor)
BDF - (b diminished)

Seems simple enough right? Don’t overthink it. This is how all chords and arpeggios are built in every key.

Inversions
What if you flip the notes around.. say.. instead of C E G, you play E C G? Is it still a C Major triad?

Yep, it’s just a different inversion, or “slash” chord. You could write it as C/E

👉 C the root “slash” / E 👉 the note in the bass. Also know as 1st Inversion.

If we put the 5th (G) in the bass (2nd Inversion) we get : GCE or a C/G chord.

Here they are in every C position on the fretboard. (right click and save to view it bigger)

...don't worry, I'll finish the lesson and include all of the chords and triads in the key in an upcoming blog post and mini-PDF book.

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Until Next time,
Guitarist & Author Craig W. Smith

3825 Swanfalls ter, Sanford, FL 32771
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