Description
In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to play a slow, melodic lead by using only triads. This is a great way to familiarize yourself with chord shapes and learn the fretboard. No scales are used.
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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That’s beautiful and just my speed. thanks Brian.
Thanks for this sweet sounding triad lesson Brian! I’m hopeful it will increase my use of them in playing other things as well.
This is a good one Brian.
Enjoying lesson 👌👌👌
Great lesson, nicely presented.
Thank you
Awesome lesson Brian, with a heap of simple insight ideas that you turn into beautiful music.
Similar lessons where you link up with other chords would be hugely appreciated
Thanks for another great lesson. I am always amazed at how you can make so much out of a few simple chords. I hope I can learn how to create such beautiful musical lines when I can see the caged chord puzzle flow from one chord to another better.
Another winner Brian. Really like this one.
Nice lesson, what Gibson is that?
Very Hawaiian. Love it. Mahalo!
Awesome Brian. Keep up the great work. 🥸🎸🥸
G’day Brian,
Seven and a half year Premium member! Thanks, mate! You are best!
M.J. Kilmore, Victoria, Australia.
Nice one Brian.
Barry B
UK
I love this kind of music Brian!It sounds exotic to me!!!Has it got a specific name???
Very enjoyable lesson Brian. I like your guitar diversity and share your vintage guitar “disease”. Nice job putting the lesson together and I appreciate the time you put into the lesson.
Thanks Brian,
That was a beautiful song you used to teach us about triads.
Brian, The more I play this the better it sounds.This is a good one to play for others because it sounds so melodic.I think everyone would like this sound.Hope you do more like this.Thanks again for all your hard work.
This lesson is right in the sweet spot to nudge me up a level! Thanks Brian.
Another good one, I love these kind of lessons and especially how you show how to play notes out of barr chord shapes without using the full barr as my wrists wont hardly go there anymore its really helpful
Great lesson, Bryan. You’re giving us the keys to the highway!
Wow! Thanks!
The ‘minor’ in a ‘major’ idea is like taking the red pill… !! 😀
Playing through the tab, especially the turn-arounds, is mana-from-Heaven! Thanks.
For me this is a brilliant way to progress… these chord shape movements and your explanation of how to visualize is nothing short of genius. Thanks so much
Great lesson. This and other Triad lessons also sound good on the ukulele.
Brian, this lesson is one of your teaching classics that show cases why you are such an amazing guitar teacher… right down to teaching the alter ego’s of particular chords (i.e. different key). Melodies and leads built from chord shapes are awesome and you teach so it well. Many thanks!
Question: is it correct to say this style of lead is also “playing the changes”?
i’d say so yes
These little nuggets I’ve accumulated last 2 years as Premium member are really starting to add up now. I don’t sometimes get the whole lesson down each week, but over time it’s been exactly what I wanted. Thx!
Thanks Brian, great lesson and for whatever reason it just connected the dots and cemented the CAGED lessons you’ve put out over the last few years, really helpful and slow enough for an ” Old Guy” to be able to play… perfect example of the ” it matters what you play and when you play it” not how fast you can play it. Any suggestions on a specific lesson that may help with counting and getting more comfortable leading up to the chord change about to happen? that timing and anticipation seems to be a hurdle i personaly struggle with then when I draw a blank I just fall back into the same old pentatonic comfort zone and playing in the key once de-railed… boring…. 🙂 Thx for the great lesson…
I can definitely hear Chet Atkinson in those runs always loved that sound so will try and emulate it
I think your auto-correct did you a disservice by changing Atkins into Atkinson. But you’re right. And Brian is brilliant both in playing and teaching. Absolutely the best on the net.
This lesson is another excellent journey. I am tempted to sit down and create a roadmap based on these concepts for each song that I want to dive into, before I even pick up the axe. Thanks.
That was fun… Thanks
Brian, I think it is starting to sink in… I’ve been staying with you week to week and I’m finally seeing the connections for everything you have been telling and teaching me. I’m not good at improvising yet but you have given me the handle I need. Everything connects doesn’t it? Chords, Triads, Caged, and my cowboy chords. I feel empowered! I have always loved music and beginning to get it. I’m going to make it work. Thanks.
Wow Brian, that is a great composition beautifully played, sounds so intended.
I wonder how long it took to come up with this for the lesson?
Given a similar chord backing, could anyone sit down at a jam and ‘improvise’ something like this on the fly? Because I am finally understanding and using these chords and triad shapes but stringing together such a fabulous melody (with descending bass lines) from those building blocks would be a massive leap forward from my current understanding.
the chords were super basic – so that was almost instant… the lead part was quick.. i came up w/ several different versions and just took the best parts from each … the concepts that I thought would fit well into a lesson
super lesson, sounds like I know what I am doings melodic everything just rings out. I am one happy member. Thankyou.
just WOW! Such a wonderful melody to keep you motivated and practical application of theory and fretboard. All that one can ask for. superb lesson, Brian- many thanks and best.
Great lesson, Brian. And, thanks for proving—once again—that less is more. If this was a single available for purchase, I’d buy it without hesitation. Nice. Very nice.
Beautiful piece. It’s amazing the B9 is the same as F#m Triad but then wouldn’t it is also the same as A6 triad?
Above comment was a reply meant for a different location. Sorry.
Thank you for explaining how the triad made by barring the 3 highest strings can be (for example) both an E9 and a D6 — depending on context. That was a question I’ve had since I first heard you explain about the “6 -> down 2 frets -> 9” thing. Good lesson, I might try to learn this one! I like the tune a lot.
I think this is the first lesson I’ve really connected how you’re making the 6ths and 9ths connection. you’re using an A shape!!!! I’m sure you’ve said it before but wow I’ve never been able to put it together.
This comment might be better suited to the Forum but here I go !
The whole concept of using triads has opened my eyes to yet more of what happens in the creation of guitar music. In particular I watch guitarists on television or at live shows (if I’m close enough !) and have a better understanding of what is happening in what used to be simply a blur of movement. I am aware of and respect, though I do not fully understand, Brian’s reluctance to get caught up in copyright issues, but I would find reference to examples from the commercial music world where the techniques described in some of the lessons are, or appear to be, used.
EP514 is another great lesson though which gives more every time you watch it !
Greetings from West Wales,UK.
Robin
In measure 19, Brian uses an A minor triad then a G#m triad during the C7 to to B7 walk down. Can somebody help me understand why this sounds okay?
It looks like that little A minor triad of C A E can also be thought of as C6. So a C6 to B6 walk down there!
Thx Brian,
Right on for me. So much I learned about chords/lead, etc. I hope to use some of it in my April challenge original.
My best…
Blues Bob
Excellent lesson Brian. thank you all the way from little old England
I see your lessons give more detail and explanation of the relationship between chords & leads. The benefit of knowing this “little secret” is priceless. Thanks Brian for the breakdown. I value this the most!
Hi Brian,
Your lessons are priceless. I enjoy them very much and this melody is wonderful.
Can I look at the following as a general rule? Barring the first three strings of any fret will always give me a triad with the sound of a sixth chord directly related to the corresponding A-shape? And consequently, will barring the first three strings moving two frets from there towards the nut always give me a ninth chord?
Thanks in advance,
Georg
Hi Brian,
You answered my question in your EP516 lesson after about 7 minutes in the lesson. Thank you. 🙂 Perfect!
Georg
I have tried to open the tablature on lession EP514 and i get a pop up saying i need to put in a (6) diget code to enter that field thay have sent me the code (3) times and each time thay say its the wrong code. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG. PLEASE HELP. Thank you Gerald Pfeiffer.
that isn’t coming from activemelody – that sounds like a virus or something related to your browser. you might try either clearing your browser cache, or using a different browser altogether (Google Chrome, Firefox) etc.
Exactly! what I was looking / waiting for
Thanks Man
i am so confused when you say,” the minor chord forA , is c sharp minor” if you flat the the third in an A you go from a C sharp to an C. so why wouldn’t the minor chord for A be an C.? And the whole thing about the A 6th being the relative minor of A which is a F sharp. where is my thinking going wrong?? Anyone Thanks
it wasn’t just a lightbulb moment. it was a major spotlight.
Hi Brian I don’t see the difference between the C-SHAPE and the D-SHAPE. When you move from the cow-boy C-SHAPE to C-SHARP that looks like the D-SHAPE then the C-SHAPE and the D-SHAPE look alike, don’t they?
This is so great. Best stuff on the web for learning. Easily worth a paid membership. Somehow Brian makes this feel personalized for me! Thank you!!
Damm, I wish I wouldn’t have stumbled across this one today….Out comes the acoustic.
I had a hard time seeing a B7 out of those two notes in the beginning, so for the edification of others, here is what’s going on. The notes of B7 chord are B, D#, F#, A in proper order come from the 1 3 5 b7 formula. The key note is the A because it is the b7 in the chord. The B7 arpeggio might also help with this as well. Actually, there is that B7 chord at the 4th fret out of the A shape where the A note is added in, which is the b7 note. If there are any others, let me know. I just had a very hard time seeing the connection because the A, F#, D notes make the common partial D chord out of the A shape and I kept seeing that triad instead. Seeing B7 arpeggio in that position.
B7 Arpeggio formula: 1, 3, 5, b7
B7 Arpeggio: B(4th fret), D#(4th fret), F#(7th fret), A(5th fret b7), B(7th fret)
I just want to say how important the details were in this lesson. Well worth working it all out so its all grasped well. It is also noted the versatility of that box of six notes you pointed out they all work over a E or E7 chord, but not the Em chord. I stumbled on this lesson because it was in the group of lessons on triads, which is what I’m trying to learn all over the neck. Charlie Long (student of Tom Hess) makes a big deal about learning triads because they are the skeleton framework of everything else you can do creating licks and melodies by simply adding in a few extra notes from the major or minor scale.