Guitar chords form the backbone of every song and are an easy place for beginners to begin learning the instrument.
Triads are chords consisting of only three notes separated by what’s known as a third interval.
Understanding how these work is the first step toward mastering more advanced chord theory. Next step should be learning how to harmonize major scale chords.
Triads
Triads can add melodic, jangly and sweet sounds to your guitar playing, providing a foundation upon which to build, as well as being used to craft some cool riffs. Learning them won’t take too much effort either – they will make you sound head and shoulders above 99% of guitarists out there!
Triad chords consist of three notes and may be major, minor or diminished in nature. Their quality depends heavily on which note is formed first – for instance a C triad will sound very different to E ones!
To effectively learn triads, it is helpful to become acquainted with the basic CAGED shapes. These will become your landmarks as you move down the fretboard and begin to form different keys of triads. Understanding their various qualities will also provide greater insight into how chords function within musical pieces – for instance minor triads may sound “sad,” while augmented triads have an almost magical quality to them.
Sus4
Sus chords are integral components of harmony in all forms of music. Simply defined, sus chords are major chords without an additional third note – making them less harmonically resolved than their counterparts and adding tension or delaying resolution.
If you want to add some zest to your sus progressions, add a dominant 7th to each chord voicing to increase the unresolved feel and give more color and jazziness! Doing this can add extra dimension and sound more jazzy.
Another enjoyable way to understand sus chords is in terms of their quartal voicings. For instance, you could voice a Dsus4 chord as either Cmaj7sus4, Gmsus4 or Dmsus4, depending on its context and voicing needs. Sus chords can easily move up and down fretboard by being stacked in fourth intervals – just make sure that any root movement when voicing them!
I-IV-V
The I-IV-V chord progression is one of the most widely used in western music. It can help create catchy rhythms and add movement and tension to your songs.
These chords are composed from an amalgamation of major and minor triads. A major triad has an upbeat, cheerful sound while minor ones produce sadder and melancholic undertones due to the intervals between the notes.
If this concept is new to you, take a moment to read our article on intervals before beginning this lesson. This will help you better comprehend how chords relate to one another; though initially challenging, with time and practice this should become much simpler. Recognizing relationships among chords will allow you to easily identify chords by ear and play them confidently – an essential skill if your aim is learning songs on your own or with an ensemble.
Power Chords
A power chord is a triad that consists of the root note and fifth note played at an octave higher. These chords are easy to play on guitar and provide rock music with its signature “power”. Examples can be heard in Nirvana, Blink 182, and other rock bands’ songs; plus they sound fantastic when played acoustically too (see Nirvana’s Unplugged album for an example of such an example).
These chords don’t possess either major or minor qualities and serve the same purpose from a melodic point of view, while also making fingerboard traversal much faster than normal chords would.
These chords can be distorted to create an impactful and gritty sound, perfect for filling any sonic space. Experiment with various pedals to alter their tone and add various overtones; these chords are great tools when crafting riffs or progressions.