Guitar Fundamentals: Minor Triads

 

    In the last couple of lessons, we learned about three different sets of major triads on the guitar and how to find them. in this lesson I will list the three different sets of minor triads.  These work the same way as the major triads.  from each shape, we simply take the top note and move it down one octave to form the next shape.  I'm going to assume you understand how that works by now, so here I will simply lay out all the minor shapes for you.

C Minor Triad

C Minor Triad

C Minor Triad

C Minor Triad

    Here's the full shape containing all four previous shapes:

    The next set of shapes for the C minor triad starts on the 8th fret:

C Minor Triad

C Minor Triad

C Minor Triad

C Minor Triad

    Here's the full shape:

    Now let's take a look at the final set of shapes, beginning on the 11th fret:

C Minor Triad

C Minor Triad

C Minor Triad

C Minor Triad

    Here's the resulting full shape from the last set of triads:

    Remember all these shapes are movable up and down the neck, which means you can use these same shapes to make a minor triad anywhere on the fretboard.  All you have to do is line up the white dot with the note that has the same name of the triad you want to play.  These minor triads can be used in place of any minor chord in music.  Now that you know how to find all the major and minor triads, try taking a song you already know how to play and replace all the chords with some of these triad shapes.  Remember that you can use any of these shapes or any combination of them to replace the regular chords you already know!

    Here are some more examples of triads in real music:

    The intro guitar part in "Brown Sugar" by The Rolling Stones is entirely made up of triad shapes we've learned in the last few lessons:

    Randy Rhoads is playing triads along with a galloping open A string in the verse to "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne (starts around 42 seconds in the video).  This is very similar to the opening riff in "Panama" by Van Halen, which we listened to back in our first lesson on Triads.

 

 <  Major Triads II

    Please leave a comment if you have a question.  I do check them regularly and will usually respond within 24 hours.