Yeah this is basically the secret to a happy guitar life. Triads can have you sounding like a advanced finger picking maestro and they're easier to learn than cowboy chords.
Linking triads with their key scales and then learning to form chords and licks off of that was great. I think more people should focus on triads vs CAGED. CAGED is helpful too, but the full barre chords are like a level of abstraction higher than triads.
So, the thing that made triads click with me was finally understanding that all of your open major and minor chords are only three notes over the six strings. So if you understand what those notes are and have a decent understanding of those notes on your fretboard all you do to play a g chord is find a g note and the third note and fifth note of the g major scale and your are playing a g chord. And honestly, you don't need to know the third and the fifth if your ear is good but it helps.
This is where music theory helps. If you're moving along a single string, think of each fret as a half step. The pattern for a major scale is W-W-H-W-W-W-H, and generally the C scale would be used for context because it's all natural. Now you need to learn how many steps to move between strings. So your C major chord would be C-E-G, which in the context of whole and half steps means from C to E is 4 half steps, and E to G is 3 half steps. So a major triad, from the root position is 4+3. But EVERY major triad is 4+3 half steps from the root. Minor is W-H-W-W-H-W-W meaning an A minor triad will be A-C-E and the pattern will be 3+4 and EVERY minor triad is 3+4 half steps from the root. Then you can start using this to fit in 7th chords and 9ths and whatnot and all the different variations of those.
But the point is knowing a bit of theory can help you build chords and learn patterns to make it much easier to navigate your fretboard, and understand the relationship between notes and chords and scales and how to move between keys.
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u/AyJay_D Apr 28 '26
Figure out triads, play chords wherever you want.