Triad Shapes

Three notes of a triad are shown on one set of adjacent strings. Name the quality and which inversion it is — that is, whether the root, the 3rd or the 5th is the lowest note.

How to work one out
  1. Find the root. Measure the three gaps in semitones going upwards, wrapping round from the top note back to the bottom one. The root is the note just above the biggest gap. If all three gaps are equal, it's augmented and there is no root to find — that's the whole reason inversion isn't asked for those.
  2. Name the quality from the two gaps above the root:
    4 then 3 → major  ·  3 then 4 → minor  ·  3 then 3 → diminished  ·  4 then 4 → augmented
  3. Name the inversion from the lowest note: the root means root position, the 3rd means 1st inversion, the 5th means 2nd inversion.

Counting on the neck. One fret is one semitone. Neighbouring strings are 5 semitones apart — except G to B, which is 4. That single exception is why the same chord looks different on the top two string sets.

Worked example. On strings 2-3-4: D string fret 2, G string open, B string fret 1. Those are E, G and C. The gaps going up are E→G 3, G→C 5, then C wrapping round to E 4. The biggest is 5, so the root is the note above it: C. Above C the gaps run 4 then 3, so it's major. The lowest note is E, which is the 3rd — so 1st inversion. That makes it C major, 1st inversion.

Qualities
String sets

Sets 1-2-3 and 2-3-4 cross the G–B string pair, so their shapes differ from the lower two sets.

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