Modal Triads on Guitar

A triad is traditionally defined as a set of three notes that are stacked in thirds. By this definition, there are only four triads: Major, Minor, Diminished, and Augmented. If we include diminished thirds in these constructions, there are more possibilities, including Major-flat-5 (which is a half-diminished chord without a third).

Recently I have been inspired to approach triads from a modal perspective, thanks to Rick Beato's video The HIDDEN CHORDS You Don't Know. Rick's list of diatonic triads includes Major, Minor, Diminished, Phrygian, Locrian, and Sus. As these are all derived from the major scale, there is no augmented chord. These chords each contain a root, second/third/fourth, and fifth:

Major: 1-3-5
Minor: 1-b3-5
Diminished: 1-b3-b5
Phrygian: 1-b2-5
Locrian: 1-b2-b5
Sus: 1-2-5 or 1-4-5

You might notice that sus4 and sus2 are the same sonority. For example Gsus4 has the notes G-C-D, while Csus2 is the same tones spelled C-D-G. Similarly, the modal triads may be interpreted different ways, such as Locrian (B-C-F) may also be considered a Lydian triad (F-B-C). Therefore there is only six distinct diatonic triads using this approach.

The key to getting a modal sound with just three tones is using the distinct intervals of those modes. For example, Phrygian is the only mode with a minor second and perfect fifth above the root. Hence the Phrygian triad is spelled 1-b2-5, or E-F-B. Locrian would be 1-b2-b5, or B-C-F.

It's one thing to know of these voicings and another thing to actually play them on guitar. So I came up with the following exercise that chains the various triads across the neck of the guitar:


Note that in each measure, beat one is sus4, beat two is major/minor/diminished, and beat three is sus2. Thanks to the distinct intervals of each mode, we see the Lydian triad pop up as an alternative to sus4 and the Phrygian triad pop up as an alternative to sus2.

Observe the very smooth voice leading. As each chord is played, one voice is moving while the other two voices stay the same. In between measures, the root of one chord moves down a third, to the fifth of the next chord. At the end of the cycle, we return to Ionian, but now it's in a different inversion. This way, these chords can be practiced in every inversion, every position.

Csus4 > Cmajor > Csus2





Dsus4 > Dminor > Dsus2




Esus4 > Eminor > E-phrygian



F-lydian > Fminor > Fsus2








Gsus4 > Gmajor > Gsus2






Asus4 > Aminor > Asus2





B-locrian-sus4 > Bdiminished > B-locrian




Csus4 > Cmajor > Csus2



And that's just in the key of C-major. Practice this exercise in every key, and if you get bored with that, try it with melodic minor, harmonic minor, etc. and tell me what you think!




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