How to Use Triads in a Guitar Solo Video Lecture - The Ultimate Guitar

as guitar players were often faced with
mysterious questions that seemingly have
no answer but what alternate-dimension
do my guitar picks travel to once they
leave my site and also what in the world
are you supposed to do when you play
lead or solo now one thing that I think
is extremely helpful in learning how to
like play lead and do stuff over
different chords is to use triads now a
try it is just a three note chord and
the two main types of triads are major
and minor chords right so just a really
quick recap we're going to talk about
intervals for a second I did a separate
video in intervals if you want to learn
more about them but right now we're just
going to talk about the number of frets
and what an interval is an interval just
being a space between two notes right so
if we take an a the fifth fret on the E
string is an a right if we go a minor
third that's just three frets we get
that because it's the third note in the
minor scale one two three three frets is
a minor third and four frets is a major
third now if we stay on the same string
and do this as three frets
if we cross strings if you go down a
string it's two frets back so minor
third major third on the same string
minor third three frets major third for
friends now a major minor chord are just
two stacked intervals right so it's easy
to remember a major chord is when the
major third comes first followed by a
minor third so if we're going to make a
major we're gonna take a major third
first which is four frets and then we're
gonna go a minor third which is three
frets so five nine twelve those give us
the notes of a major chord and in case
you're interested a C sharp and E you
don't even have to know this because
it's more of a shape based thing a minor
chord is is really a very similar thing
it just has the minor third first so a
minor would be haying minor third major
third right so they're stacked intervals
to give us these things right now how
does this help us with lead playing
first of all you might be familiar with
our page right like a very common
arpeggio to start off with is something
like this again in arpeggios just a
chord played one note at a time so if we
to play a minor arpeggio we have five e
minor third
major third see now this is a good
example of stacking those thirds right
so you start with a minor third and then
from the minor third you do a major
third and then that would be the octopus
another a so a really common exercise is
and then you can do the same thing with
like a major chord now that's a really
great exercise but it sounds completely
boring and if you try to incorporate
that into a solo it would be really
bland
like I'm boring myself to death someone
shoot me in the head right so we're
going to talk about incorporating these
same intervals but doing it in a little
more interesting way where we're
spanning the fret board little ball
right and we're gonna start by routing
some of these intervals on the high E
string okay so just like the low E
string the fifth fret isn't a the high E
string the fifth fret isn't a right now
if we go a minor third or spanning three
frets right so five to eight we can kind
of flash it up a little bit by pulling
off and hammering on right and then now
we could find the major third or the
yeah from here by going five to eight
four frets 12 five a 12 so that's a
triad right there's a three note chord
now we can kind of keep it in the same
position by playing the twelfth fret
which is an E and finding it on the B
string which is a fifth row right here
right so we could have our three note
triad on the higher register of the Cobb
guitar by doing that so five e 85b they
can play it backwards right
so I'm doing a pull-off from 8:00 to
5:00 and then ending on e so my root
note is actually the fifth fret right
it's kind of the same thing is doing
this but in the higher section right now
we view the same thing with a major
chord by just giving the major third
interval first so instead of three frets
as four friends this is also a very good
example between the difference between
major and minor right minor major now as
soon as we're done with this we can end
on the next note right so we have the
minor third pull off to the fifth and
then we can continue on through to get
the next note here so again root note
minor third major third or if we're
doing a major chord root note major
third minor third exact same thing so we
have one kind of exercise that kind is
starting to span at the fretboard a
little bit right so now let's connect to
different triads together we'll do an a
minor one with the C major one okay so
the C on the high string is the 8th fret
now if we do the major 3rd from here
it's the 12th fret h-12 has four frets
that's the major third and then we could
play the fifth down there so C major
to a minor
I notice they both share this Ino the
12th fret between them so that's why
it's kind of a good transition point
between them like if you have like a
loop in the background playing like a a
minor to a C you can play it and you can
always do that no matter where you are
so as long as you know the root note on
the high E string you have something to
do over any single chord a very
important part of soloing is being able
to switch with the chords like in cases
go into a different key or something
like that so knowing the root notes on
the high string is really good thing to
do because you can always generically do
something like this that sounds like a
solo no matter what is going on behind
the music right so let's do something
we're going to do a circular pattern
through the fret board where we're doing
an a minor kind of our PES you'll run
into the next one right and then what
we're gonna do is we're gonna climb back
through another voicing of a triad right
so we're gonna learn two more triad
voicings we're going to connect the
whole thing together right so one thing
that I think is very underused are non
traditional triad voicing so what I mean
by that is you probably play to a minor
chord like this you probably put the
Barre chord like this you may have even
played like something like that right
but what you don't really see is where
you root the triad on the a string with
your pinky and you kind of come up right
so remember like we said before if this
is our root note a on the twelfth fret a
minor third above it is gonna be two
frets back one string down right and
then again remember we want a major
third from here to complete the triad so
we're just going to go down another
string back another fret so you have 12
a 10 d9 Gia
so this is a perfectly good a minor
voicing just like this would be a G
sharp minor this to be famous if you
have sharp this would be half minor
right
and then the same thing applies if we go
major third first and then minor third
now we have an a major voicing right
another really cool one is this one
right here which is what we're going to
start running backwards from the
arpeggio firm right now right now I have
my ring finger on the tenth fret of the
B string pointer finger ninth fret g
string middle finger tenth fret D string
this right here is also a minor triad in
fact the notes would be this is my a
this is my E and this is my C so this is
just another a minor triad now we're
gonna get to these two shapes after this
little run okay so we're gonna start
with the pull offs on the higher
register I'm going to pull off B hammer
pull off slide to the twelfth fret and
that's gonna bring me back into a little
thing where I walk backwards through
this triad voicing I saw and then I'm
gonna take it from this voicing into
this moistening rice this is kind of
like a lesson learning more voicings too
for these triads so uh and then I'm
gonna drag it back to where I started
with this a is gonna be started on this
one but again anything in the high E
string is on the low E string so the
whole thing is that's a really good
circular exercise that takes you through
chord voicings
and kind of like a little solo run we
can do the exact same thing with a major
chord right and let's do the one on see
that we started with earlier right so
we're gonna do the same exact thing
Oh
we've got the C major arpeggio and
remember this is the major third that
comes forces for fret span into a third
fret which is the minor third right so
uh and I you the same thing I can walk
it but instead of going minor
I'm gonna go major so I'm gonna have
we're gonna add up on 15
go back to 13 B 12 G 14 so here's a new
major chord voicing which sits kind of
right above the one that we did before
which is which is kind of like just like
a C major chord if you're at a bar right
here so for this one we have to the C
right so both of them back to back we
have the minor one and then we have the
major one
okay and now we're going to kind of put
them together over a loop so we're going
to do a loop in the key of C and we're
going to do an a minor to C major to G
major to D minor right so starting on
the a minor ISIL has a loop now we're
going to start there's our first kind of
arpeggio
now what I could do I could follow each
of the chords for the a minor part I
give you the a minor one then for the C
major I could do that for the G major I
can do this one because the G is the
third fret so we have the four front one
and then for the D so I've got four
chords and again this is just some ideas
this isn't like the end-all be-all of
souling because you always want to kind
of add what you know about scales and
stuff to it so I'm going to start with a
minor pentatonic lick and then I'm gonna
jump into the exercise we did and then
I'm gonna end in this voicing this a
string rooted voicing okay so here we go
so again these are just a few ideas that
you can kind of use maybe in conjunction
with some Lexus you already know but
just be cognizant that major and minor
triads are really kind of the building
blocks of any single song even if you
see like a minor 7 or a minor 9 chord or
some kind of extended chord there is a
minor triad that kind of roots that
chord together same thing with like any
kind of major seven major nine any
extended chord there you can always play
the major or minor triads and use kind
of some of these like licks and tricks
to kind of just expand your playing and
kind of just get into soloing in general