Triads on the Middle Strings

A six-string barre chord is almost always too much for this music. It covers the bass player's register and it takes too long to move. The soul guitarist's standard unit is a triad: three notes, the smallest complete chord there is, played on the middle or top strings.

The most useful set sits on the fourth, third and second strings — D, G and B. And there is a piece of luck in the tuning that makes them easy to find.

Those three strings are tuned a fourth apart and then a major third apart, which is exactly the spacing of a major triad in second inversion. So barring all three at the same fret gives you a major chord, every time. The root is the note on the third string, in the middle.

One fret, three strings, three chords

All three notes at the fifth fret give C major. At the tenth, F major. At the twelfth, G major. In each case the chord is named by the middle note, on the third string.

e
B
G
D
A
E

-------------------|
--5-----10-----12--|
--5-----10-----12--|
--5-----10-----12--|
-------------------|
-------------------|

That is the I, the IV and the V of C major, and you found all three by moving one finger shape to three places. Play them with the flat of your first finger, or roll your third finger across all three strings, whichever is cleaner.

Turning any of them minor is one more fret. Lower the second string, the top note, by a single fret and the major third becomes a minor third.

Major, then minor, at the same fret

C major, then C minor. Only the top note moves, down one fret.

e
B
G
D
A
E

-----------|
--5-----4--|
--5-----5--|
--5-----5--|
-----------|
-----------|

Two practical notes. Mute the strings you are not using — let your fretting fingers lie across the first, fifth and sixth strings so a loose strum does not catch them. And keep these chords short. A triad stabbed on beat two and immediately damped is a soul part; the same triad allowed to ring for four beats is an organ pad.

Now put it to work. This track is in C, so the three shapes you just learned are the three chords of the song.

A Robert Cray style R and B groove in C. Comp with the three triads above, and keep to the rule from lesson one — play on the backbeat and leave the rest alone.