When I started playing the guitar, I despised triads. As the building blocks of music, I knew they were important -- but they were boring! It took me many years to finally realize that there were some incredibly practical and fun ways they could be used to make me a significantly more creative guitar player. In this lesson, I’m going to show you how to use triads to play complimentary guitar parts.
To illustrate this concept with something you know, I’ll be using the Bachman-Turner Overdrive classic “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”. This song features two distinct guitar parts designed to create width and depth in the song. The guitars are essentially playing the same thing: chords. However, while one guitar plays the open chords, the other is playing simple triads further up the neck.
Try this out with other songs you already know and see how it works for you. Triads are an under-appreciated tool that many guitarists ignore. Add it to your tool belt and you’ll notice your playing will get significantly more interesting overnight!
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