Triad
A chord of exactly three notes built from a root, a third and a fifth, the basic unit out of which most harmony is assembled.
The third decides whether the triad is major or minor, and the fifth anchors it, so triad shapes on the guitar are the foundation of both chord playing and much lead playing. Because the guitar has only a few strings compared with a keyboard's range, triads are usually played as small three-note groupings on adjacent strings, and the same triad appears in several inversions across the neck. Learning them as moveable shapes opens up the whole fingerboard.
Example: the same major triad played on the top three strings, then on the middle three, gives two voicings of one chord with a noticeably different weight.
See also
Related
- PageChord
- PageAccent
- PageAction height
- PageAlternate picking
- PageAaron Dessner
- PageAce Frehley
- PageAd-Rock
- ReferenceCircle of fifths