Triads and triad based chords are fantastic jazz voicings! In this lesson, I am going to show you how you can get started with some triad voicings from what you already know and then go over 5 levels of how you can play some great sounding comping ideas using these voicings.
This is something I use all the time myself, and if you check out the Chord solos of Joe Pass he is also using this all the time.
Take The A-Train – Basic set of chords
Let’s start with taking the A-part on Take The A-train and play that with a set of chords that you already know:
Triad-based voicings
If we play these without the root then you have these voicings:
Converting the Jazz voicings and doing great things
I am going to show you two important things about these voicings:
#1 There are more melody options. You can change the top note and give us some options:
#2 All the voicings are triads
Cmaj7 without C is E G B = Em
D7 without D is F# A C = F#dim
Dm7 without D is F A C = F major
G7(b9) without G is (in this voicing) F Ab B = F dim
A7(b9) without A is Gdim = G Bb C#
Top-Note Melodies and Some Jazz Rhythm
First, you should look at the chords and find another melody note for each one. (this is powerful because you can make start making riffs and making things sound a lot more interesting.
Using Inversions of the triads
Since all the voicings are triads then you can also use the inversions of these triads. If you use the inversions as well then you have some options similar to this:
Chromatic melodies & Inner-voice movement
Of course, it is possible to use movement in the other voices, not only the melody. In fact, that is what I am doing on the D7 above.
The example below takes that a bit further.
I am also using some chromatic movement in the melodies most clearly in the top note melodies on the D7 and G7 chords, and in the inner voice melody on the Cmaj7.
Altering the voicings for more modern jazz sounds
And beyond changing the top note you can also experiment with changing notes inside the chord and in that way create some new voicings.
In the example below on the D7, you will see one such voicing. The first voicing on G7 is a similar construction.
You can also download the PDF of my examples here:
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for topics then please let me know. Leave a comment on the video or send me an e-mail. That is the best way for me to improve my lessons and make them fit what you are searching for.
If you want to play jazz and want to learn how to play jazz solos then you are probably also practicing scales and working on scale exercises.
In this lesson, I am going to go over a few scale exercises that you probably already know or at least should check out and then I am going to talk about how to connect them to chords and really use them to make music.
It is very important that you don’t just work on moving your fingers with exercises, you should always try to practice the things you need when you are playing.
Getting Started – Basic Scale Exercises
So first I am going to go over a few exercises and then I am going to relate this to a little simple music theory and show you how you can turn that into something you can make music with.
Let’s look at some of the fundamental things you check out in a scale, just playing the scale and playing thirds.
Lets take a Cmaj7 chord and this C major scale.
You want to play these two exercises because they are going to help you develop the technique to play the things that you can use in lines. Of course, you can use both 3rd intervals and scale runs in solos, but that is something I will save for another lesson.
The Mighty Triad – Powerful Melodic Structures
For most of this lesson, I am going to focus on how to practice and use triads because they are both flexible and powerful tools in soloing. But the process is really the same for all sorts of arpeggios.
There are a few great ways to practice triad arpeggios in the scales. First here is a basic version: play Diatonic Triads
But you can also give it more of a jazz sound already at the exercise level by adding leading notes both ascending
and descending:
Now we can start working on making some really great sounding licks with these exercises, but first, we need to figure out which triads will work over a Cmaj7.
Music Theory (just a little..)
Now, we have 7 triads in the scale. They don’t all sound that great on the chord, so first we need to find some that work.
The only note that sounds funny on the Cmaj7 is an F. I don’t like calling it an avoid note, but if we are looking for triads then that is not the greatest one to use.
We have all these triads: C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, Bdim,
C: C E G Dm: D F A Em: E G B F: F A C G: G B D Am: A C E Bdim: B D F
If we remove the triads that contain an F then we get these 4 triads C, Em, G, Am
These fit!
C: C E G (1, 3, 5) Em: E G B (3, 5, 7) G: G B D (5, 7, 9) Am: A C E (13(6), 1, 3)
Now we can start making lines with these exercises and then I will show you another exercise that is great for creating solid melodies
Making Lines with the triads
The first example is using an Em triad and adding a leading note to the 5th:
Another way to work with the Em triad is to play the triad as a triplet to change up the rhythm:
You can also chain together triads as I am doing here with G major and Em triads:
Another Great Exercise
Since the triads work so well in licks it is also possible to change the order of the notes. Until now it was always 1 3 5 or 5 3 1 but if you practice other patterns you can really get some great melodies as well.
Here is a simple pattern that starts on the third: 3 1 5 pattern example
If I make some licks with this pattern then you get something like this:
You can also download the PDF of my examples here:
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for topics then please let me know. Leave a comment on the video or send me an e-mail. That is the best way for me to improve my lessons and make them fit what you are searching for.
You want to include Triads in your Jazz Guitar vocabulary. Triads are some of the stronges melodies we have available and in the video I am going to go over 5 easy exercises to build your triad vocabulary on jazz. For each of the exercises I also have a jazz lick using the pattern so you can hear how it sounds in context.
Of course you are practicing scales and arpeggios but it is difficult to put that into real music. But there are also ways to practice that are a lot easier to put into a solo. I am also going to talk about how ways practice them and of course give you some examples on how to use them in a solo.
I find that working a bit at these patterns really helps:
Making more interesting solo lines
Use the things you Practice for technique
Have a better overview of arpeggios on the neck
Knowing the Scales and music theory
As a small extra feature this also demonstrates some of the places where I use sweeping or economy picking!
Lick #1 – Top Note Targets
As you will see I tend to work mostly on triads in scales, so what is often called diatonic triads. This is because if you check them out there then you have them together with all the other notes you use when you are soloing so it is about understanding the triad, the chord and the scale.
This first example is a pattern that really emphasizes the top note of the triad arpeggio. Since the top note also almost can work as an independent melody this is an easy way to build a strong line just having a simple melody that is harmonized with arepggios.
On a side note you can hear Lage Lund use this pattern quite a lot.
Exercise 1 – Diatonic Arpeggios
Probably the great thing about this pattern is that it really emphasizes the top note, so the rest of the notes almost sound like they are accompanying that note. This means that the melody you hear is mostly the top-notes moving. The large interval skip from the 5 to 1 followed by the ascending arpeggio also gives the line a lot of forward motion.
Altered Scale Triad Pair
Here you have an example of how I might use the top-note pattern. In this II V I lick I am using it starting on the Dm7 and then going on to the G7alt with Bbm and Abm triads.
Bbm and Abm form a triad pair on a G7alt since they are triads with out common notes:
Abm: Ab B Eb and Bb: Bb Db F
Finding triads for a chord
The way I find the triads that I can use over a chord is by looking at a chord with extensions. As an example you can look at the Dm7 chord, with the stable extensions in C major that would be a Dm(11):
D F A C E G
And the process is really just to pick out the triads contained:
Dm: D F A
F: F A C
Am: A C E
C: C E G
Lick #2 – 3rds Distance Cascade3rds distance
This way of playing the triads is useful because you are playing them together so that they fit a chord. If you are improvising over a Dm7 then Dm, F and Am triads all work over that chord.
Having the triads together like this works well for cascading arpeggio ideas combining several triads over one chord.
A useful or practical way to practice this is across the string sets in two different ways
The first approach relies on Economy picking where the second is using legato for the same note set. As you may have noticed in other lessons I use this economy patter quite a lot.
3rds Distance – Legato idea
In this lick the cascading triads are on the Dm7 and then stretching into the G7alt with the Db triad. This way of using the triads also creates a great 3 note grouping.
Lick #3 – Leading Notes
Adding chromatic passing notes to triads is a great way to use them and add some bebop or jazz flavour to the triads.
The exercise here below is taking the diatonic triads in a common 8th fret scale position and add a chromatic leading note before the root.
Chromatic leading notes
The example here below adds a leading note first to the F major triad and then the A minor triad. The G7alt also adds a descending version of the leading note to an Abm triad.
Lick #4 – The Wrong way around
Another variaton that is easy to use is to play the triads ascending through the scale, so Dm, Em, F, G, Am, Bø, C but then play each triad descending.
This exercise is showed on the top string set and notice how I am using economy picking to play the triads.
New Directions for Triads
The lick is using the first three triads from the exercise: Dm, Em and F major and from there going into an altered lick based on an AbmMaj7 arpeggio.
Lick #5 – Arpeggios are melodies
You don’t have to play the notes of the triad in the same order all the time. In this exercise I am changing the order from 1 3 5 to 3 5 1.
This has two advantages: I t really brings out the 3rd in the triad and of course creates a strong melody.
Creating new triad sounds
This lick is demonstrating how you might use the triads. On the Dm7 I used an F major and an A minor triad.
Notice how the lick has a lot of large intervals and the triads still pull everything together.
Arpeggios and Target notes
A huge part of playing over chord changes is using arpeggios like triads and then thinking ahead so you hit the right target notes in the next chord.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for topics then please let me know. Leave a comment on the video or send me an e-mail. That is the best way for me to improve my lessons and make them fit what you are searching for.
Triads and Spread Triads are invaluable as tools for making jazz lines, especially in the realm of more modern sounding melodies. The video is in three main parts: An analysis of the chord progression, Finding triads that can be used and discussing outside or exotic scale choices, and finally making lines with the material and talking about the colors of the superimposed jazz guitar triads. How to make guitar licks and what rules come into play when using triad pairs and spread triads in jazz guitar solos.
This video turned out to be a lot longer than I thought, but especially the ending I think is a good documentation of how I write lines and you see me experiment with the material I find through the analysis and the triad options.
There’s also a lot of good discussion on melodies and how you write strong melodies with material like this.
1:01 Analysis of chords and form 1:28 Key and form 1:56 The Chords and their function 2:14 The mysterious Eb7 German Augmented Sixth Chord 2:43 The Double Diminished #IV explanation 3:45 Back to the Harmonic Analysis 4:49 How Out Of Nowhere is about Eb7 in G major 5:46 Analysis of The 2nd half of the song 7:02 A modal aspect of Out Of Nowhere 7:46 Why Triads and Diatonic triads are so great for solos
Finding Options Triads for the chords
8:44 Selecting Triads 9:16 Triad options for Gmaj7
10:17 adding the Lydian Options to Gmaj7 11:56 Harmonizing the melody with a lydian sound 12:51 Lydian Augmented triads on Gmaj7 13:48 Augmented Scale on Gmaj7 14:30 Bbm7 Eb7 16:45 C7(#11) 17:15 Bm7 17:32 E7 altered
18:53 Am
22:07 Am7 D7 22:54 D7 altered 23:26 D7 Diminished
Making Lines:
24:48 Making lines with triads 26:31 Extensions in the melody of Out Of Nowhere 26:48 G major/ B minor triad over Gmaj7 29:21 Voice-leading B minor to Bb minor 31:11 Bbm Eb7 33:48 Connecting Gmaj7 C7 34:47 G major – Melodic Minor Hack 37:13 Bm7 E7alt – E7 triad pairs 38:48 Ab+ and Bb major
41:21 Am 42:18 The might Am triad 43:26 Making D7 altered lines 45:18 D7 Diminished Line Ideas
47:24 Spread Triads On Gmaj7 51:33 Bbm Eb7 ideas with Open Triads 52:41 Spread triad ideas for E7alt 53:40 Rules of melodic movement in a Jazz Lick 56:06 Mark Turner and Kurt Rosenwinkel 57:30 Emphasizing upper structures and extensions 58:51 Resolving into the Lydian Augmented sound
