Guitar Chords – Learn How to Play Triads on the Fretboard

Guitar chords are combinations of two or more notes stacked atop each other that form the basis of many songs.

Chord charts include numbers next to each note that indicate what fret on the string it can be played at; each number represents one finger.

Beginner photographers may find this process confusing, but there’s an easy solution for working it all out.

Major Triad

Triads are one of the simplest chord shapes you can play on the fretboard, often seen in arpeggios, melodies and riffs. Additionally, triads provide an effective means of learning major scale and intervals – providing a solid basis upon which to expand your chord knowledge.

Triads typically consist of the root note, third note and fifth note of any scale; for instance a C Major triad would consist of C – E – G. However, it’s important to remember that these shapes can be moved freely on the fretboard as long as you stay within one group of strings.

By moving shape 1 up two frets so its root falls on the seventh string instead of sixth string, we get A Major triad shape. By understanding these triad shapes and how they move up the fretboard, you can create your own chord progressions using these triad shapes. Furthermore, knowing these triad shapes will come in handy when improvising and jamming!

Minor Triad

Minor triads offer you an effective means of creating exciting chords, with their second note moving either down to C or up to E allowing you to alter their character and alter their mood.

The chord quality of both major and minor triads is determined by the interval between root and third: major triads have a major third while minor ones contain only minor thirds.

To create a minor triad, simply move the second note lower to C or raise it by an octave to E. Doing this involves muted bottom three strings (or playing them with less power) while moving the first note up one fret – this makes an effective minor triad!

Practice using various chords will quickly help you learn the difference between major and minor triads, and how your ears (supported by music theory) will tell you which are available before playing them! Furthermore, this technique will also assist in replacing power chords with ones that work better for whatever song you are performing.

Dominant Seventh

A dominant seventh is simply a major triad with an additional minor seventh (10 semitones up or two steps down from its root note) added that creates two strong tritones. When played cadentially, this chord provides a natural resolution of sorts to its tonic triad counterpart.

The most frequent form of the dominant 7th chord is represented by the D shape shown below. You can move this shape anywhere on the fretboard without changing key.

Jazz musicians may come across drop 2 and drop 4 dominant seventh voicings. These voicings involve lowering the highest note of a closed triad by an octave for this effect.

Fingering complex guitar voicings with their large moving parts (the third) can be challenging. To make things simpler, you can use a barred E shape chord in fret two as shown below to play these chords more efficiently. Doing this allows your third finger to leave fret two of the D string more freely making for easier chord playing!

Minor Seventh

This chord builds off of a minor triad, but lowers its fifth by half step for an dissonant interval. While tricky to play correctly, this chord sounds beautiful when done so – Willie Nelson’s song, Autumn Leaves is an outstanding example of such an arrangement.

To determine the chord quality for a 7th chord, just look at its circle of fifths and count how many half-tones (also called semitones) lie between its root note and each of its other notes in its scale – major, minor, dominant and diminished chord qualities are identified by these intervals.

So for example if your chord has the roots G, B, and D it will be considered a major seventh chord; but by shifting its root up an octave to C it becomes a minor seventh chord; this same pattern applies when changing other characteristics of chords as well.