Upper Structure Triads

Upper structure triads are useful for bringing new elements into your solos and comping. Upper structure triads and superimposition are something that you will hear popping up all on recordings by just about every single well-known jazz musician. As with every new improvisational device, the most important part is getting your ear acclimated to this sound and internalizing the tonality. Once you make it part of your personal database of ideas, it will naturally work itself into your playing. In this lesson, you will learn which upper structure triads work best.

Triads are a foundational element that every jazz guitarist should be completely familiar with.

If you can’t quickly find a triad voicing at any specific position on the fingerboard, it would be well worth taking the time to really get them down before you start using the applications in this lesson.

Accessing a triad is a simple task, yet when carefully placed over a specific harmony they can result in some really sophisticated sounds.

The Upper Structure Triads of Cmaj7

Let’s start with the upper structure triads of the Cmaj7 chord.

Here are the triads from the root on:

 

Some things to keep in mind:

• The upper structure triad must contain at least one tension which is not an avoid note. Avoid notes only play a role in major chords.
• An upper structure triad can be major, minor, diminished or augmented.
• You can use upper structure triads for soloing as well as for comping.

 

Triad	Notes	Played Over Cmaj7
C	C E G	1 3 5	Not an upper structure triad because it contains only chord tones
Em	E G B	3 5 7	Not an upper structure triad because it contains only chord tones
G	G B D	5 7 9	The first upper structure triad for Cmaj7
Bm(7)b5	B D F	7 9 11	Not a usable upper structure triad for Cmaj7 because it contains the avoid note (11) for C major
Dm	D F A	9 11 13	Not a usable upper structure triad for Cmaj7 because it contains the avoid note (11) for C major
F	F A C	11 13 1	Not a usable upper structure triad for Cmaj7 because it contains the avoid note (11) for C major
Am	A C E	13 1 3	The second upper structure triad for Cmaj7

 

A List of Upper Structure Triads That Sound Good

Here’s a list of upper structure triads that sound good to my taste.

I’ll do the first one with you so you can see how the list works:

• The first upper structure triad in the list is for a major chord.
• V means we build the upper structure triad on the 5 (compared to the root) of the chord.
• So in case of a C major chord, the upper structure chord is G: G B D (5 7 9)

Here’s what the abbreviations mean:

• Vm means a minor triad on the 5th note.
• V+ means an augmented triad on the 5th note.
• bVII means major triad on the b7.
• And so on…

 

Chord Type	Chord Tensions	Triad	Note Functions
Major	9	V	5 7 9
	9, #11	II	9 #11 6
		VIIm	7 9 #11
Minor	6, 9, 11	IIm	9 11 6
		IV	11 6 1
		Vm	5 b7 9
		bVII	b7 9 11
		bIII+	b3 5 7
Minor/Major	9	V	5 7 9
Dominant	9,13	Vm	5 b7 9
		VIm	13 1 3
	9, #11, 13	II	9 #11 13
		II+	9 #11 b7
		bVII+	b7 9 #11
	b9, #9, b5, b13	bIIm	b9 3 b13
		bIIIm	#9 b5 b7
		bIII	#9 5 b7
		III+	3 b13 1
		bV	b5 b7 b9
		bVI	b13 1 #9
	b9, 13	VI	13 b9 3
Sus4	9, 13	IIm	9 4 13
		IV	4 13 1
		bVII	b7 9 4
Half-Diminished	b6, 9, 11	bVI	b6 1 b3
		bVII	b7 9 11
Diminished	b6, 9, 11	II	9 b5 bb7
		IV	11 bb7 1
		bVI	b6 1 b3

 

Upper Structure Triads Example – B over D7

We’re going to look at a triad placed over a dominant chord in a ii – V – I.

The upper structure triad we are using is B (VI over D7).

 

 

When we analyze what’s going on here, we can see that the line contains a B major triad in the second measure. If you were to rename each note in the triad based on its relationship to the D7, you’d end up with the 13, b9, and 3.

 

B major triad	B	D#	F#
Played over D7	13	b9	3

 

The reason this ends up working so well is that the B major triad serves two purposes simultaneously:

• It highlights some very tasteful chord tones and tensions.
• More importantly, we’re hearing it exist as a triad occurring separately from the D7 harmony.

Just like any other chord substitution device, it’s very important to have a quick way of accessing the triad while improvising. There are a few ways to memorize this technique:

• You can think of it as a major triad built a minor third below the root of the dominant 7 chord.
• Similarly, you can think of it as a major triad built upon the 13th of the dominant 7 chord.
• Lastly, you can think of it as a major III chord in the key of the ii – V – I.

 

Another interesting way to access this superimposition is in the following example:

 

Note: I use the Wes Montgomery fingering for the major 7 chord arpeggio but some may prefer playing the 7th (B natural) on the 1st string at the 7th fret to avoid shifting.

 

In this line, we start out by playing a C major 7 arpeggio built on the b3rd of the ii chord. This is an upper structure arpeggio that ends up as the b3, 5, b7, and 9, a really nice minor 9th chord sound.

The interesting part of this line is the root movement of the implied chords. We start with a major 7 arpeggio that resolves a half step down into a major triad, which then maintains the same root but changes to a minor 7 arpeggio.

This series of substitutions is really easy to access and ends up highlighting some really nice upper structures and colorful tensions. Work this into your vocabulary by practicing ways to quickly locate the b3rd of the ii chord.