Ever wondered how many ways there are to play major (and minor) triads on a guitar?
Well, sure enough the answer has got to be 42!

Let’s follow Zaphod Beeblebrox in our exploration of the Total Triad Vortex.

Definitions
A voicing is the specific way in which chord tones are stacked. A voicing can be closed (all the chord tones are within the boundaries of an octave), or open (the interval between the lowest and highest chord tones is larger than an octave).

An inversion specifies which chord tone is in the bass. In root position, the root is the lowest note in the chord, in first inversion it is the third, in second inversion it is the fifth, etc.

Traditionally, inversions are presented in closed voicing. For example, here are the three inversions of the C triad: C = (C E G), C/E = (E G C), C/G = (G C E).
Please note that the voicing (E C G) is also C/E, but this is an open voicing since the chord tones span more than an octave.

Four note chords offer even more possibilities. Here are the closed voicing inversions of the G7 chord: G7 = (G B D F), G7/B = (B D F G), G7/D = (D F G B), G7/F = (F G B D).

Triads
On the guitar, it is very easy to play closed voicing triads in root position, 1st inversion and 2nd inversion on adjacent string sets (strings 3 2 1, strings 4 3 2, etc.). That gives 12 different ways of playing each triad.

But what if we use non-adjacent string sets? For example, strings 4, 2 and 1 (skipping the G string).
A closed voicing root position C triad (C E G) becomes impossible to play – try it!
However, we can drop some notes down the octave. For example, in the C triad (C E G) we can drop the second highest note (pitch-wise) and drop it down the octave to get (E C G). This is called a drop-2 voicing and it is of course perfectly playable on the strings 4, 2 and 1 of the guitar.
You will notice that technically, it is a first inversion C triad in open voicing.

If we take the close voicing first inversion of the C triad (E G C) and drop the second highest note, we get (G E C) which technically is an open voicing second inversion of C. This one is also easily playable on strings 4, 2 and 1. Same deal with the close voicing second inversion…

The same reasoning applies for string sets (5, 3, 2), (6, 4, 3), (4, 3, 1), (5, 4, 2), etc…

The total result is 42 different ways of playing each triad (14 string sets times 3 voicings per string set).

Four note chords
Drop voicngs are particularly useful for four note chords, since most closed voicings of those chords are impossible to play on a guitar.

For example, here are the closed voicing inversions of Cmaj7:
(C E G B) (E G B C) (G B C E) (B C E G)
Only the root position is playable.

The drop-2 voicings for these chords are
(G C E B) (B E G C) C G B E) (E B C G)
and the drop-3 voicings are
(E C G B) G E B C) B G C E) (C B E G)
All these voicings are playable on the guitar.

Doubling chord tones and removing notes
In all the above we have considered chords without doublings. However, voicings can also include doubled chord tones, or on the contrary lack some chord tones.
This is an easy way of changing the way the chord actually sounds.
For example, the traditional C cowboy triad (X 3 2 0 1 0) corresponds to (X C E G C E); as you can see, the root and the third are doubled, which gives the chord a much fuller sound with an emphasis on the root and 3rd.
Sometimes, however, you may want lighter chords…

I don’t think there is any point in learning by heart the 42 different voicings for major and minor triads. I’d personally rather read The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy again… It’s a lot more fun!
But if you want to really know which notes are where on the fingerboard, it is certainly a great exercise to go through them!