Active Melody

Learn to play blues guitar.

Harmonized leads that live inside triads – Easy to visualize! – Guitar Lesson EP490

Description

In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to visualize and actually use harmonized 3rds and harmonized 6ths when you improvise.

Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson

Part 2 - For Premium Members

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Slow Walkthrough

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Video Tablature Breakdown

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Comments

  3. David S says

    Brian, Playing triads with Harmonized 3rds, 5ths, 6ths, Put it all together and yah hoo. Fun, fun, fun. These last 6 lessons have been the greatest!!! Thank You,Thank You, Thank you!!!
    Dave

  6. Steve M says

    Brian, I’ll give a thumbs up. It sounds great and I particularly like it because of how quickly I feel like I am learning something both in getting the patterns and timing down but also understanding the theory of it.

  9. Kevin L says

    Brian what a fantastic series of lessons on triads. I have had many ‘light bulb moments’. Well done. My enrolment to premium membership has been the best money on guitar lessons that I ever spent. Keep up the great work!

  13. Daniel H says

    Awesome lesson. Do harmonized thirds and sixths have much musical utility when the root is on the 6th or 5th string? I notice your lessons on 3rds and 6ths avoid them. Is this to keep the lesson more compact or is it musical “no-mans land”?

  15. Lyn C says

    These lessons on triads have been really amazing- they are so simple and yet so useful. Not to mention that they are easier to play than entire bar chords. You keep on delivering the best instruction. Thank you Brian.

  18. Paul N says

    Hey Brian, you mentioned getting away from instructional lessons. My personal opinion is that I love (and need) your instructional lessons on these basic theory concepts. I’ve been searchjing your past lessons to see if you had a tab that showed these 3rds and 6ths in a specific key over the entire fretboard. Now I know how to find them easily.
    Thanks for this basic, yet so important, instructional lesson!

  21. Andre H says

    Brian, question on the harmonized sixth chords on the 4th & 6th strings. Let’s say fret 7, you play both strings on the 7th fret. You indicate that you could see that as a G-chord in a D position. I get that. There is just no root (5th on the 4th string, and 3th on the 6th string – in case of a G). However, I can also see that is an abbreviated B minor with a D (b3) & B (root note). Do I say that correctly? For me, it works sometimes better to think about the B minor chord instead of the G chord.

  23. Manley says

    Absolutely love the lessons of late and now with harmonies I couldn’t ask for more until next time. My understanding the fretboard has improved so much as of late and I credit you for all you teach us. Thank you a value customer.

  27. drlknstein says

    just a great lesson for me. i use these triads in everything I do. I spent about a month on the other 2 lessons 485. (and i ll probably return for a review after this)
    I just got thru part one here and i ll probably spend several weeks on this one…I just can’t get enough of these types of lessons…. i understand exactly where all of this is coming from but it is such a great help to learn these licks and ways to use the triads..and the relationship to the other triads in the songs, and the way you teach these

    Ive been on your site a long time (not sure how long) but I ve learned a great deal!
    thanks

  28. Alan V says

    Excellent stuff Brian. Absolutely love the way you use the practical application of triads to make real music. real music. You are not only a gifted musician but a brilliant teacher too.

  29. Nick Ll says

    Brian, that is absolutely the format and balance of lesson I like the most. Plenty of applied theory with easily understood explanations, tabs above the breakdowns and regular repeats of sections at full speed.

    Also, and admittedly from a slightly uncharitable perspective, I like the two part lesson format for the (selfish) reason that I feel I am getting a little more added value for the paid subscription over and above what is offered free on youtube. As to the prettiness or bluesiness of the harmonised intervals I must admit I’m not as keen as you on too much prettiness – I veer more towards the bluesy stuff than the Chet Atkins sound, but we all have our distinct preferences and I believe you negotiate a good balanced path through your audience’s varied tastes with the range of lessons you deliver.

    Thank you again for being without doubt the best online guitar tutor out there!

  34. Pentti S says

    Brian. This is a great continuation fo the former lessons. I really like this approach, where you connect the consecutive lessons and create a learning path. However the nice thing is that the lessons can be watched as separate ones as well. Thank you so much.

  35. Jim J says

    Been lov’in your triad series. I’m 77 and practice your lessons every day 1 to 2 hours almost without exception. You truly are very good. I figure with terrible hearing, a memory that sucks and arthritis in my hands, why wouldn’t I play the guitar. It’s funny how these guitars get some kind of hold on you. At least the wife likes listening to me while she is watching her Hallmark channel.

    • Jere R says

      May I join the club? I am 74, arthritic thumbs prevent me from making 6 string bar chords or laying my thumb over the neck to silence the 6th string, I am learning new ways to play chords and also trying out ways to avoid stretching across 5 frets, can’t do the old shuffle below the 7th fret

  37. Wolfgang M says

    Great lesson. Mixing theory with easy playable examples. so that fun of making music never gets lost. Its always skills an thrills.
    I tried the progression at 12.44 with the chords Emaj F#m G#m Amaj and it works. Possible to see it this way as harmonized thirds over these chords?

  38. Robert says

    Hello Brian. Excellent lesson as always. Question for you. While demonstrating the A Major, E Shape, you indicate that barring the B and high-E strings on the Fifth fret is a 4th interval. While this is true if you are strictly looking at the distance between the 5th and Root of the chord, in the context of the A Major chord, wouldn’t you view it as a 5th interval since A Major only consists of Maj3, min3 and Perfect 5th intervals? Thanks in advance. Just trying to make sense out of all of this and it gets confusing at times.

    • Brian says

      You make a good point. I think it depends on the direction that you’re counting the interval from – if you’re playing the 5th fret, string 2 (an E note), and you walk up 4 intervals, you end at the A note (5th fret, 1st string). So you’re starting with the B – but if you start on the A, and walk up 5 intervals, you land on an E note… so I always assumed if the A note was on the bottom, and you put the E on top of it, you’re playing a 5th (power chord) – but if you put the E note on bottom, with A on top, then you’re playing a 4th. Scratching my head here… anyone else have an opinion on this one?

      • Robert says

        Hi Brian. Thanks for the reply. Yes, exactly as you have stated. The interval between the E and the A is both a 4th and a 5th. It’s just a matter of which note you start with. As such, it had me wondering if you would then choose which interval to go with based on the context of what you were playing. In this instance, an A Major Chord, my first thought was that it was a fifth since E is the 5th of A Major. Not really a big deal. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t misunderstanding your intended usage based on your composition. This was a great lesson which gave me a couple of “lightbulb” moments. Thanks for all your great content and instruction!

  39. peter r says

    Thanks Brain, I have been a premium member for about 3 months now. Your lessons are great. I am learning so much and I love how the weekly lessons just give enough info to keep you going without over doing things. Cheers keep up the great lessons.

  42. Liz says

    Clueless Active Melody member and novice here. Learning scales on both my acoustic and electric and CAGED. It takes a while to absorb it all. But I’m enjoying the journey and watching your advanced lessons too.

  44. Dan S says

    I’m hooked on your Dickey Betts EP409 (I think) and these last lessons have been a great extension of that sound. Keep building lessons on top of a single theory like you have in the past few lessons That helps a lot. I suppose some will escape a certain thought process, but I see from many comments that your subscribers seem to like this themed approach.
    now for that muscle memory expansion.
    FIVE STARS ALL THE WAY.

  46. Jay F says

    Thanks Brian! Another great lesson…….at my level, each one of these lessons gives me enough to work on for a month.
    Really appreciate the visualizations to chords/triads…….
    Jay

  48. Randy G says

    Hey Brian – in the sign-off on the 2nd video, you mentioned that you’re trying to do less note-for-note detailed explanations. For me personally, where every note comes from is critical to my understanding and the knowledge tends to stick. Thanks for the perfect lesson and pls keep those details coming!!

  49. Michael B says

    Love these lessons on harmonies, but I found it strange that when I investigated it further the second interval for the harmonized 6ths was a major 6th when I thought from the standard harmony rule it would have been a minor6th. Are there other exceptions to this rule I will have to look out for as well?

    Tks,

    Mike

  51. Geoff says

    Very nice Lesson. One of the things I find interesting with these is I see them used all over the place in my classical guitar studies so, in a way, I am quite familiar with them. Nice to see them related back to the chord patterns too.

  53. Slimpicker says

    The triad series has been fantastic. Learning to visualize the harmonized thirds and sixths within the triads provides real examples of useful music theory.
    The level of instruction has always been just right for me. The lightbulb bulb moments and takeaways are the gems that are emedded in the lesson material. Thank you for continuing to drive these concepts home!

  54. Brian N says

    I’m new to your videos Brian and I’ve been really enjoying the lessons. I’ve been playing guitar far too long to mention, but your instruction has really helped to move me forward and understand conceptually what i’ve been doing haphazardly! So thanks for the well-thought out instruction. Keep up the excellent work! From another Brian!

  56. Jim J says

    Brian – A year ago, I was mired in basic chord playing and scales. Then a friend of mine directed me to your web lessons. Now, I am finally playing music, picking out notes, slowly mastering the entire fret layout. Was surprised to find my chords now sound better and are much easier to play. These triad lessons have really opened up my thinking and playing. Thanks. Jim J.

  58. Scott M says

    A treasure trove of a lesson. Thank you so much!

    I’m struggling to connect the harmonized 6th on strings 1 and 3 at the end of the song that represents the E chord (goes from the 7th to the 9th and back to the seventh) to its triad.

    It’s probably something very simple that my brain isn’t picking up, but if you could shed some light on it for me I’d be very grateful.

    Thank you!!

    Scott

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