- This is a lot of work,
and I have no idea why
I'm putting in the work.
I don't know how to use them.
Ultra boring jazz etudes that
were just dry and not fun.
Unrecognizable.
It's like playing "Twinkle
Twinkle Little Star"
with triads or something.
I don't wanna play like that.
Everything I do is based off of it now.
- [Man] Seriously?
- Yeah.
I hate triads.
I think they're stupid and boring
and that's because when I
first learned about triads
back when I was like, I don't know,
23 years old, from this book,
it was so boring and dry
and I had no idea why I was learning them.
It was so much information.
Then I got really frustrated with it
and I just didn't see the value in them.
It wasn't until a lot later
that I started realizing
that learning triad shapes
was a really valuable way
to write complimentary guitar parts,
and that's what I wanna show
you how to do in this video.
And I have the perfect
musical application,
the perfect song, to help you do this.
It's the Bachman Turner Overdrive song,
"You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet."
And if you check out the
two main guitar parts,
I'll show you a little
clip here in a second,
you're gonna see that
they're very different,
but very complimentary.
Here they are.
(guitar music)
Learning new things on the guitar
through music that you
actually like to play
is one of the biggest secrets
to getting better faster.
So let me know in the comments below
what are some of the
songs that you've learned
that have helped you with either technique
or just some general kind
of concept on guitar.
That way other people can go
maybe learn that song as well.
So to get started with this,
we need to look at the
fundamental chord progression
that we're gonna be working through.
And if you saw the part that
was played on the last pause,
just an A major, open A,
(guitar strum)
a G, (guitar strum)
and a D (guitar strum).
Now you can play that, or
you can play bar chords.
(guitar strum)
A, G, and D.
But you're not always gonna
wanna play the exact same thing
that another guitar player
is playing in the band,
or bar chords like that may be
a little bit too beefy sounding
to make a complimentary guitar part.
So we're gonna take a look
at two chord voicings,
two really basic triad voicings,
that will help you kind
of open up the framework
to start creating other parts.
These two voicings are just
a D major (guitar strum)
and then an A major. (guitar strum)
But we're gonna be using what we call
second inversion triads, where
the fifth is in the bass.
We're just using the notes
that we're fretting here.
So for example, the D chord
is just D, on the B string,
F# on a high E string,
and then an A on the G string.
Those are the only notes
we're gonna be using.
But we're gonna slide this up
to where it's an A chord using a D shape.
So if you go all the way up,
to where you root note is on an A,
that's exactly what we're
gonna be shooting for
and that's on the 10th fret.
And this is really cool because
it gives you new voicing to use,
but it also is gonna help you
start memorizing the names of the notes
on the black hole of the B string.
A lot of guitar players
don't know the notes
(guitar strum)
on the B string.
This will help with that.
So we're gonna play this A.
(guitar strum)
And then we're gonna move it down
one whole step to play a G
(guitar strum)
to fit our progression.
And then we're gonna use the second shape
that I'm gonna talk
about is just an A shape.
(guitar strum)
And it's the same idea.
It's a second inversion triad,
that just means the fifth
of the chord is in the bass,
the root note is in the middle,
third is on top,
and the fifth is in the
bass, or the lowest note.
And you're gonna use this root note
as your reference note and move it up.
We need a D, so we're gonna
move it up all the way to a D,
right here on the seventh fret.
And if you know this A bar chord shape,
it's the same thing.
We're just not using this root.
We're just using this
little partial shape.
So a D.
(guitar strum)
So all of a sudden, we go
from this A (guitar strum),
G (guitar strum), D (guitar strum),
or A (guitar strum), G (guitar
strum), D (guitar strum),
if you're using bar chords,
to this, A (guitar strum) with a D shape,
(guitar strum) G with a D shape,
(guitar strum) and then D with a A shape.
So it's extremely different sounding.
Completely different
part of the fret board.
(guitar strumming)
And it's very complimentary
to what's going on down here.
This has kind of the open chords,
the meat of the guitar part,
and this puts a lot,
just some different voicings
with some higher notes
that makes it really sound nice.
It goes along well with
those other chords.
(guitar strumming)
So if you only take one
thing away from this video,
I would concentrate on this.
Use your D shape up
and down the fret board
to play different voicings
for chords that you already have.
Like you can even make it
into a bar chord like this.
(guitar strumming)
But the important thing is
to start moving it around.
So from a D, to an E, to an F, G, A, B.
And you can do the same
thing with an A chord.
(guitar plucking) A, B, C, D, E, F, G.
And it does take some work
to get this to where you know
exactly what chord you're playing,
because you have to memorize
the names of the notes
on the B and G strings
to make these chords
really viable for your playing
to where you can use them in
a lot of different situations.
Let's look at the
pre-chorus for this song,
because it gets a little bit more involved
and the chord voicings are
coming a little bit faster.
For the last pull part of
the opening chord part,
the progression is D (guitar strum),
F major (guitar strum), G (guitar strum),
A (guitar strum), C# minor (guitar strum)
F# minor (guitar strum).
And then you have a Bm7 (guitar strum),
and then a D (guitar strumming).
All super common chords.
If you're an upper beginner
slash intermediate player,
you should know those.
Now it's a little bit trickier
because the chords move so fast,
but you can use the same type of voicings,
those triad voicings up the neck
to create another part
that's very complimentary
to that part that we
just played down here.
And with that progression, it's just this.
You have your D using your
A shape (guitar strum),
then you slide up to an F (guitar strum),
because the 10th fret
of the G string is an F,
that shapes work, that A shape,
and then a G (guitar strum)
all the way in the 12th fret.
And then it goes back
to an A (guitar strum).
You can use your D shape there.
And then it goes to a C#m,
which you can do (guitar strum).
This is just like a bar chord.
I'm just playing the top
three or four strings
(guitar strum) for the C# minor.
And then you have (guitar strum)
an F#m7, which I'm just using
a regular A shape for that.
(guitar strumming)
After that you have a Bm7,
and again, I'm just using
kind of this Em shape,
but just the top four strings.
(guitar strum)
Maybe it's just the middle
three strings right here,
the D, G, and B.
And then you move up (guitar plucking)
to this D, which is another
shape (guitar strum),
thinking about this D
shape (guitar strum),
just put an extra note
here (guitar strumming).
But the important thing
is that you start to see
how you can take chords from down here
and use those other
shapes, the D and A shapes,
to play through that progression.
So D (guitar strumming),
F (guitar strumming),
G (guitar strumming),
A (guitar strumming),
C#m (guitar strumming),
F#m (guitar strumming),
Bm7 (guitar strumming),
and then all the way up here
(guitar strumming) for that D chord.
So again, it may seem like a
lot of information at first,
but the first step for this
is just to get used to moving
in those shapes around the D.
(guitar plucking)
Just everywhere on the
fret board, if you can
(guitar plucking)
to create complimentary guitar parts.
And this works great if you
have another electric player,
if you have an acoustic player,
or if you have a piano
player even in your band
that is playing a lot
of really full voicings
and you need some just brighter
triad type voicings to play.
Now you don't always wanna play
something that's completely different
from the other guitar player in the band,
and the chorus for this song
is a great example of that.
The chorus moves to all power chords.
(guitar strumming)
And sometimes you want that.
You just wanna beef up the
one sound that you have
instead of playing something
that's kind of contrasting,
or complimentary to the
other guitar that's going on.
So are triads something that you use a lot
in your playing like I do?
Or are they something
completely new to you
that you've never used before?
Or are they something
that you've looked at
in the past, and been like,
I don't really understand why
I'm supposed to be learning these things.
Let me know.
I'll see you later.
(rock music)
♪ "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet." ♪
