I'll admit as much as I love music and the guitar, practicing can be a challenge. Making your practice routine more interesting will keep practicing guitar fun and fresh and you will probably practice longer and more frequently. I find a great way to keep practicing instructive and entertaining at the same time is to take a concept you are working on and make a little etude out of it. This way you can still learn the concept, pattern or technique you are working on but you will also be learning composition skills. Basic triad shapes are the foundation of a lot of pop and rock music. One of my favorite triad passages is from Living Colour's 'Cult of Personality'. Another band I love 'The Red hot Chili Peppers' especially in the Frusciante years used a lot of triads for both lead ideas and rhythm on the guitar.
I put together a little etude that works in some familiar triad shapes and can be a challenge to pick cleanly as well. The whole etude is repeated twice in the video below if you are following from the guitar tab.
The rhythm is eighth notes - although I tend not to be too strict and let the patterns flow a little to make things breath a bit. I hope you enjoy this and hopefully it will inspire a few guitarists to start coming up with some ideas of their own.
