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Learn to play blues guitar.

(Part 2 of 2) Minor Triads are amazing! How to use minor triads when improvising Guitar Lesson – EP486

Description

In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to find minor triads all over the fretboard and use them when playing both rhythm and lead. This is a follow-up to lesson EP485

Free Guitar Lesson

Song Example

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Practice 1 (top 3 strings)

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Practice 2 (strings 2,3,4)

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Practice 3 (blending triads)

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Video Tablature Breakdown

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Comments

  3. Scott N says

    More great learning. Question I should know the answer to: In the lesson for major triads, you showed how to do extensions—6s, 9s, 7s. Do minor triads have the equivalent? It just occurred to my that I think to play the flat 7 with major chords, but not with minor chords. And you showed in this lesson how to make the relative minor function as a 6 chord for example, but can you not just play a minor chord and add the 6th, as you would a major chord.

    Much gratitude for leading my guitar journey!

  6. Laurel C says

    Thanks Brian, a bumper package of Major and Minor Triad material in the last two weeks. Nice idea to add the annotation for the play through at the end of the tutorial. This twin package deserves a spot in My Courses under a topic heading for ‘Triads’ as an essential resource. It also complements Ep 362 another excellent resource for Triad PDF’s which also includes the 6 and 9 triad chords., Plenty of practice to get these shapes around the fretboard become second nature.

  16. Walter D says

    Thanks, Brian. Love how you built on the concepts from the previous major triad lesson. Venture to say these might be two of the most important lessons you ever created. Totally unlocks the fret-board with the combination of CAGED and triads.

  18. Jim M says

    The explanation of using the 3 different minor triads (Em, Dm, Bm) over the G major triad is priceless. This alone opens up endless possibilities for rhythm fills and solo improvisation.
    Just an Outstanding Lesson Brian.

  19. Daniel H says

    This lesson is loaded with good stuff. How cool is it that minor triads live in the 6, 9, maj7 shapes so you can tap into them when playing over a specific major chord.
    That nugget alone was worth carefully studying this lesson. Thank you Brian for further unlocking the fretboard. Wow.

  22. David D says

    Hey Brian,

    Love your site. I don’t know how you come up with new stuff (and good stuff) week after week. I would like to ask a favor though, could you please put the key signature into the notation? I looked at the Soundslice web site and it seems that the software does support key signatures. Without a key signature every sharp or flat in the key gets written individually into the notation as the song progresses. This really cluters up the page. In addition those notes are being displayed incorrectly. As an example this week the key is Gm and the signature is 2 flats, Eb and Bb. However all the B flats are being shown by the software as A sharps and the E flats show up as D sharps.

    Just thought I’d mention it. I’m guessing that with the key signature inserted at the start of the song this would all be corrected.

    Thanks again and have a great day!

  35. Ted A says

    Great Lesson and thank you!
    But I am puzzled by one (big) thing in the song example — where it is a basic I-IV-V blues minor song — and thus Gm/Cm/Dm . . . . but how does a Bb chord fit in there? (it is not annotated on the screen, unlike all the other “moves”) — is the Bb chord some kind of passing chord? If so, could you explain how it works? (its not a dim chord, or a sliding down-into or up-into chord . . . or is it?)
    thanks–Ted

  37. Russell H says

    Brian
    The problem I have is that there are months of learning embedded in each lesson – how you do that is beyond me
    Your ability to be musically meaningful is truly impressive – I will keep slogging through and falling behind – but one day …
    Brilliant – loving the challenge

  38. Geoff says

    Wow, there is so much to unpack here. I certainly get how to flat the 3rd to get the minor triad and that is nothing new to me.

    – The thing I never know was how adding the 6th to the root major chord would turn that chord into the relative minor – that is really interesting.
    – The other thing I think I will get a lot out of is using those ‘Line Chiches’: nice term 🙂

    I am still working through EP485 on the major triads and then I am going to move onto this one.

    One of the things I think I am going to be able to do after completing EP485/EP486 is “just play something” when someone hands me a guitar. These lessons have really helped me to understand how to mix chords in with the major / minor / blues scales.

    Thanks again Brian for another great lesson.

  39. drlknstein says

    i have studied your lessons on the relative minor use that you covered here and i use it all the time at jams and in gigs…its very useful..this coverage here was helpful too..i would love more of it and more info of how to use it
    excellent lessons
    thanks

  41. bjordan says

    Amazing video Brain! I’ve been a member for years and it’s because of sessions like this one. It’s got so much information packed into it. I’m going to be working on this one for a while!

  43. Ricky H says

    Brian, you just keep out doing yourself as a teacher. I really love how you have been building on each of these triad concepts each week and then taking them to the next level. Add onto that the use of the technology and annotating what you are doing at the end. My hat is off to you and thanks so much for making this all so easy to understand.

  44. Robin D says

    Brian this idea of playing the minor pentatonic over major triads. Is that because it’s a blues progression. Presumably we’d been playing notes from the major scale to create melodies in a standard progression?

  46. C Frank O says

    Hi Brian I can’t find part one of the minor triads; It would be a lot easier if all the triads ere together at the beginning since they need to be learned first any way before attempting lead playing. Thank you Frank O’Donnell

  47. Kyle M says

    Phenomenal lesson. 1 thing I liked it particular (that helped mea lot) was calling out in the video walkthrough why each piece makes sense in the composition. I’m new here so maybe you do that in all of the videos, but it helped tremendously (i.e. Gm pentatonic pos. 4)

    One question – why skip the triads you can make on strings 6, 5, 4? PSA I haven’t had a chance to go back and watched your videos / philosophy on the caged system and your approach to the 3 patterns,

  48. Scott R says

    I think it would be interesting to do a video relating triads to what position of the cage system that it is in. Both in major and minor. I am going to try on my own but just a thought for a future lesson. Thanks

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