Triad Shapes for Guitar

Triads are made up of the root, third and fifth of a chord. In this guitar lick I've created a chord progression in the key of C that utilizes triad chord shapes on the top three strings of the guitar. The chords are Dm/Am/G/F Em. The best example of triad use in modern guitar playing that I can think of is by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. There are a lot of tracks from 'Californication' and 'By the Way' where John Frusciante employs the use of triads to add depth and interest to the chord progressions in many of their songs. Triads are also used frequently in Reggae guitar playing because the smaller chord shape is better suited to the muted and staccato style found in a lot of Reggae guitar music. In the next few examples we will look at how to solo and add more guitar parts over this progression to demonstrate how the basic triad part works within the context of the musical piece as a whole.