Guitar Triads Chart (Major)
Hi. This is Hub Guitar.
We're going to talk about a lot of different ways to play major chords on the guitar.
This is one of the guitar fundamentals that's actually somewhat easy to play, but most beginners never fully learn it. So this is a big step towards unlocking the guitar and understanding how the notes work.
We'll start by playing a major chord. We're going to use A major for this example. Then we're going to play different inversions of that chord. An inversion is just the name for changing the order of the notes. For instance the A chord has an A, C# and E. If we play it in the order of C#, E, A, that's called the first inversion. If we play in the order of E, A, C#, that's the second inversion.
We can make these inversions by going across the strings, or by going up the strings. like that. We want to practice them both ways.
Here's an example going up the strings that I just showed you. got this shape, A, C#, E. Now we are gonna do C#, E, A, and then E, A, C#.
But we could also do that by going across the strings.so I'm gonna show you an example of that, starting from this root position, A, C#, E, C#, E, A, E, A, C#, and then A, C#, E, like that. Now you can also go across from any of those other inversions that we did, and that's what you should do.
So the goal here is to learn every inversion of the chord, on every set of three strings. cause you've got this one, this one, so it's four total groups of triads that you can do on sets of three strings. You should practice each set going up and down the same strings, and also going across the strings, and memorize them all. There are 12 in total.
For this example, we’ll use the A triad, consisting of the notes A, C♯ and E.
This guitar triad chart details every closed-position guitar triad shape on the guitar for the major chord, using all four sets of three adjacent strings. These triads should be studied first across: A major on the 6th, 5th, and 4th strings, turning into A major, first inversion on the 5th, 4th, and 3rd. Then the triads should be studied going up the strings: A major, root position, on strings 6, 5 and 4; then A major, first inversion, on the same strings. Once mastered, these tiny structures can be strung together in powerful ways to create many interesting new sounds.
These triads are not only helpful in visualizing the notes on the guitar, but also essential in popular music. Many catchy grooves and hooks that can be heard on the radio are played with these triads. Since few guitar players bother to learn them all, incorporating these triads into your playing can help you come up with fresh sounds and ideas.
Major Triads – Strings 6, 5, 4
Root Position
First Inversion
Second Inversion
Major Triads – Strings 5, 4, 3
Root Position
First Inversion
Second Inversion
Major Triads – Strings 4, 3, 2
Root Position
First Inversion
Second Inversion
Major Triads – Strings 3, 2, 1
Root Position
First Inversion
Second Inversion
Key Tasks
- Play through the chords and learn all of them.
- Practice the chords up and down one string set, as shown above (e.g., 654).
- Practice the chords across string sets, e.g., Root on 654, 1st inversion on 543, etc.
As the creator of Hub Guitar, Grey has compiled hundreds of guitar lessons, written several books, and filmed hundreds of video lessons. He teaches private lessons in his Boston studio, as well as via video chat through TakeLessons.