A Shape Barre Chords: Triads

How to Play Triads with Root Note on String 3

The Triads we're about to learn have the root note on the third string. I'm aware that many of you won't know the notes on String 3 - it's a reality that many guitar players only know the notes on the thickest two strings from their barre chords. However, if you've got this far in the A Shape Barre Chords module, you should be confident with your notes on String 5. And here is the good news: you can remember these grips by thinking about the root note on String 5 rather than the root note on String 3. :)

Down the line, you should think about these Triads and root notes by learning the notes on String 3 but thinking about the root notes on String 5 will help you build the connection between those strings and root notes. So please stick with me and keep learning!

Major Triads

The first Triad we'll learn has a C root note - it's on Fret 5 played with Finger 3, and Finger 4 is underneath it, also on Fret 5. Your first finger play Fret 3 on the thinner string. When playing the big A Shape, we don't play the thinner string at all, but with the Triad grip, we want it. Take a look at the diagram:

💡 Some people use Fingers 2, 3, and 1, but it feels a little bit stretchy and makes it harder to change to the Minor. I recommend using Fingers 1, 3, and 4. However, experiment and see what works best for you!

The root note is on the third string, but if you don't know the notes there, you can always remember that the root note is on String 5 in the same fret as your first finger. For example, if you want this to be an Eb Chord, you can look for the Eb Note and place your first finger in the same fret. This makes it easy to navigate your way around this chord.

If we go to a C minor, all we need to do is lift off the little finger and put the second finger down. The same rule applies!

Minor Triads

Let's look now at Minor Triads using the A Shape Barre Chords. Here's the diagram:

So to play the Minor Triad, we only need to lift off the little finger and put the second finger down again. It's just the top part of this C minor here. The same rule applies to finding the root note applies, and you can hear they're an octave apart.

Practice With Real Chord Progressions!

Pick some chord progressions that use the grips with the root note on String 3. Take some of the chord progressions that you've learned before using Grip 1 and apply them to this! For example, if you were doing this one before, going from G to C, D to C, now you'll play G here, which is on the Fret 10, and then move to C.

Explore some common chord progressions and also how to integrate Grips 1 & 3 - like in this video tutorial. The most important idea is to move them over your fretboard!

Guitar Duets

Most commonly, we'll use Triads as a second guitar part. Have you experimented with this idea before? :) Now, you have some different things that you can experiment with! Triads are a fantastic tool, especially if you're playing in a cover band.

For example, if you have a song with the same chord progression, such as Walking on Sunshine, which is just G, C, D, and C the whole way through, you can use it as a Triad experiment: play that same chord progression in as many different ways as possible, and see where you can link the different triads together. :)

What's Next?

There's one more Triads set to learn! We've learned Grip 1 in our previous course, which was based on the E Shape Barre Chords, and we've just learned Grip 3, which is based on the A Shape Barre Chords. There's one more grip to learn, based on a C Shape Barre Chord - we'll learn that in Grade 6!

Bonus!

Here's a cool little bonus that I use all the time - it's a bit more advanced, but it's actually easy as well, and it sounds fantastic. I hope you like it - watch the video lesson to learn it. :)