Guitar Triads - Creating the Major Triad by Stacking Thirds

In module one of my forthcoming guitar theory video course ‘Triads: Inside Out’ we are firstly going to learn the closed voicings of the four different triads.  

Here is a breakdown of the major triad and one approach to how you can visualise it on the guitar fretboard.  

If you are familiar with interval shapes (check out my free video course on my YouTube channel if not) you can use major and minor thirds to create triads shapes.

 A major triad can be thought of as two thirds stacked on top of one another.  For a major triad (in this example, C major) we have a major 3rd (C-E) on which we add a minor 3rd (E-G).  A major triad is therefore major 3rd + minor 3rd.  

The major triad on the fretboard

The major triad on the fretboard