Triad Guitar Chord Practice

This lesson assumes you already know what triad chords are, and what the numbered chord progression system is.

As of the writing of this lesson I do not have a triad explanation lesson, but I do have one one the numbered chord progression system. CLICK HERE for the numbered progression lesson.

Eventually there will be an entire course on chord theory.

This lesson will go over how you can approach practicing and learning your triad chord shapes. This will be kept in the key of C. All of my in person students learn their triads in the way this lesson is presented.

​First, get comfortable playing the following chord shapes in the order they are presented:

Once you've familiarized yourself with playing those chords in order, it's time to use some chord progressions using the numbered chord progression system.
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These are the 8 chord progressions to use:

What you will do with each progression is important. You will start with the first group of chords you played earlier. The first group of chords are all the chords that start on the low E string.

Play the first chord progression to begin. Play the I - IV - V - IV plus repeat. You can use the tab from above and match the Roman numerals that are underneath each chord to the chord progression(s). So, you'll be playing C, F, G, F, repeat. Play each chord 4 times. That's what each slash represents in the above image with the chord progressions. Each slash represents one chord strum.

The video at the end of this lesson demonstrates this idea.

After you can play the first progression with no mistakes, move on to the second progression with the same group of chords. Keep doing this until you play all 8 progressions. Then, move on to the second group of chords; the chords that start on the A string.

After you can play all 8 progressions with the second group of chords, move on to the third group of chords. After completing all 8 progressions with the third group of chords, move on to the fourth group.

​Once all that is done, it's time to play the chords in a more practical manner. Instead of making large jumps from left to right, it's now time to play the chords in close proximity.

The following tabs show all 8 chord progressions played in 4 different ways so you can get very familiar with how these triad chords are laid out on the fretboard in the key of C.

If you want more chord progressions I recommend going to Random.org and putting together random generated progressions. Use the numbers 1 and 7 for the variables. You're welcome to put together progression that use less or more than 4 different chords. Have fun with it!

This lesson does not cover voicings and inversions. Voicings and inversions open up far more possibilities on playing triad chords. If you'd like a lesson on them, tell me!

​Check out the following video for demonstrations of this lesson: