Description
In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to play a slow, melodic lead by connecting major and minor triad shapes to the Major Pentatonic scale. This is designed to help you visualize a path for your lead and know which notes are safe to land on.
Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson
Part 2 - For Premium Members
Only available to premium members.
Register for premium access
Register for premium access
Slow Walkthrough
Only available to premium members.
Register for premium access
Register for premium access
Video Tablature Breakdown
Only available to premium members.
Register for premium access
Register for premium access
You need to be logged in as a premium member to access the tab, MP3 jam tracks, and other assets.
Learn MoreAdd to "My Favorites"
You need to login or register to bookmark/favorite this content.
That is quite beautiful, nice and slow. I can always use lessons to help me with triads. Thanks Brian
My yearly goal is to improve my chord tone soloing. This lesson is a perfect start.
Very nice composition explained clearly and understandably. I’m curious about the chord structure of songs in general, this one being a great example. Is there a general rule of thumb approach to, the order of, and which chords are included, in the construction of tunes that are outside of the 1,4,5 recipe?
Not really. You will eventually know all the chords within the structure of the major scale for any key if you stick around long enough. There are seven of them and when you throw in borrowed chords and secondary dominates, the sky is the limit for the various ways that you can create a progression. The shear amount of examples on this site is incredible. It will sink in over time, but once you learn the concept of what he is doing to create a composition, there is nothing holding you back from creating your own thing.
The zoomed out view of what is happening always boils down to creating tension and release with the sounds of the chords and melody notes. There is usually a tonal center to a particular song, in this case it is the A note and A major scale or Fm relative minor scale. The V chord just happens to be the most often used chord because it creates the greatest amount of tension and the IV chord creates a similar amount of tension depending on if it is descending or ascending. It all becomes clear when you bone up on music theory.
A Bm Cm D E Fm Gdim
You can pick any one of the other chords (other than A) to create tension and eventually resolve back to the A note or chord.
If this was a Minor key (Fm), then the ONE would be an F note or Fm chord.
Fm Gdim A Bm Cm D E
Hope that makes sense, but if not, don’t worry about it. You’ll get there over a period of time.
Several years since becoming a member, I still look forward to Friday and the newest “weekly lesson.” If you want to enjoy top-notch h teaching, excellent backing tracks, PDF printable downloads, and the video lessons that can be slowed, looped, etc. You won’t regret the price to become a yearly member.
Amen to that. It doesn’t have everything to equip a speed metal player for stardom, but for making music and telling a story on your guitar in a musical way, it has it all.
I really liked this lesson. As a guy who likes R&B, Gospel and blues I am taking an interest in triads and double stops. It’s been a while since I actually picked up my guitar and did a lesson but this one pulled me in.
Question: Is there a way to loop the backing tracks?
Brian Thank you for the great lessons.
you can download the MP3 file to your computer or mobile device and use software like VLC Player (it’s free) – it will allow you to loop an MP3 file. There may be an easier way, but that’s what I’d do
Am starting to understand the value in playing out of the triads like others here are saying – And I could not agree more to the fact that Brian’s site has it all – Gotta have some ActiveMelody each week !!
Thanks Brian –
Another Gem Brian. An instant favourite for me, I love the Triads and this sounds so good. I would love to see a continuation of this one.
I’ll second that in a big way. My playing has improved so much since joining this site especially when using triads to accent a song.
I find that gradually working on each weekly lesson chords and arpeggios are presented in context which helps put the concepts into my long term memory. This really builds my technical capability but also the ability to improvise. Wonderful lessons!! Thank you!
Amazing lesson that has opened up my eyes to patterns a lot more. Really appreciate these lessons. I’m getting to where I can play most lessons fairly quickly but then I start experimenting with them and getting lost in them. Until next lesson, then repeat. Went back and started playing with EP 591 again this week. Recommend it to all who love a beautiful blues. More like this one please!