Triad approach to mapping fretboard

[NSJ]

Great book! My approach when teaching triads is a little different to Randy's. I like to show how all the forms overlap and that means working in the opposite direction on the fretboard. Here's the major triad group (minor, diminished and augmented can be derived from the same forms):

Attachment 16218

Excellent system. Sorry to nitpick about typos, but in measure four, you have the notes G-C-G listed in the chord diagram but the notes C-E-G listed in the standard notation below it.

[PMB]

Thanks Navdeep. I put this together years ago with standard tab and quickly rejigged it after reading these posts yesterday. By the way, I really like your approach as well - Vic Juris outlines something similar from memory in his Modern Chords book. Here's the corrected version of my file:

[smokinguit]

Great system PMB. I like the way you put the triads together by moving up the neck around the cycle.

[dingusmingus]

Cool stuff PBM. I tried this out today and liked it. I also tried it out, going up a fourth diatonic to one key. Also helpful.

[PMB]

Here's the whole set for anyone who's interested (let me know if any gremlins crept in...).

[DocJay]

Awesome! Thanks for posting these!

[smokinguit]

I will definitely put these in my practice routine. Great way to warm up the fingers. Thanks!

[Jonzo]

One thing about a lot of these routines is that you are always moving in a routine fashion. It seems to me that to be able to play triads at any place, any time, you should schedule them unpredictably.

[MarkRhodes]

For a more melodic approach I would suggest Expansions by Gary Campbell

Dana, a Forum Santa sent me this. It arrived this morning. Yay! Thanks for the suggestion.

[Dana]

Dana, a Forum Santa sent me this. It arrived this morning. Yay! Thanks for the suggestion.

Nice Mark. I hope you find it worthwhile.

[destinytot]

Here's the whole set for anyone who's interested (let me know if any gremlins crept in...).

THANK YOU for sharing these!

[destinytot]

Here's how I have practiced triads.

You have to approach them systematically (FROM the nut TO the 12th fret, from the 1st string TO the 6th string, using 4 separate string sets--123, 234, 345, 456, not just up and down the neck, but, also very critically, across the neck. It is the second part--across the neck, that generates the root and 2 inversions (1st inversion, 2nd inversion) pretty much in place.
...

Thank you very much for this tip and for these helpful instructions.

(After listening - repeatedly - to that fantastic GVE interview, I'm inspired to start applying this approach to Marty Grosz's tuning, too.)

ADDITION: Although I'm back to working long hours in my day job, I'm also in the fortunate position of having separate instruments for each of my preferred styles, so I can really indulge myself during those valuable moments when I get to play simply for pleasure. I keep my new Ibanez on a stand, and bring it to work twice a week to play during lunch, which, where I live (and for those fortunate enough to be working), is a three-hour break.

I've always admired and respected GVE's remarkable 'problem-solving' approach, and I adore his acoustic playing - and that of Allan Reuss and Steve Jordan - not least for the chord solos. Thanks to NSJ's post, I've been enjoying playing little melody lines by switching between triad inversions and single-note neighbour notes. (I'm a total convert to the Benson grip, but I find this style calls for the reverse angle to Benson picking.)

However, triads are the least of what there is to learn from George Van Eps.

Listening to the interview above, I'm learning not just about the instrument but about (to me) less-obvious aspects of the circumstances under which I play it. There's a hidden cost - a kind of slow self-sacrifice - to leaving the comfort of home for anything less than truly inspiring. It's more than a matter of money, but I think that interview may have prompted me towards what might be called a "business mindset" with regard to gigging.

[MarkRhodes]

It is also good to know sequences of triads. Many idiomatic jazz phrases are built on an ascending or descending group of triads.
For example, C (CEG) Dm (DFA) Em (EGB) F (FAC) You end on the note you start on---though in this case up an octave--and then 'answer' it with a line that moves down then up and ends on a B note (the major 7th of E), or a strong note of the chord you are moving to.

Another example is what has been called "stacked" triads. Over C7, say, C (CEG) E (EGBb) G(GBbD) Bb (BbDF) / and if you want to contine ascending, you have D (DFA) F(FAC) A(ACE) E(EGBb). You don't have to start with a C triad, of course.

Also, if you know your triads, you can build a lot of lines off of them without having to think about it.

Say you're in C. A simple pattern is to play the note above the chord tone, the chord tone, the note below the chord tone, then the chord tone again. (DCBC, then EDEF, and so on. Some of the notes may not be in the scale but the line will work because its internal momentum is so strong. Just be careful where you land!) This is an easy way to build a strong line. Many solos kick off with such lines.

[edh]

@Mark, where did you get this info? Was it in a book. I want to learn this stuff. Is it just a matter of going up the scale and forming triads on the notes of the scale?

thanks
edh

[MarkRhodes]

@Mark, where did you get this info? Was it in a book. I want to learn this stuff. Is it just a matter of going up the scale and forming triads on the notes of the scale?

thanks
edh

I learned much of it from a Carol Kaye booklet.