Because I have a very inflexible index finger at the first joint unlike a very flexible ring finger that allows me to play grip 3 above easily with only two fingers.
1 Like
Try barring the e B G strings with your index finger then start with the pinky on the G string. When your hand becomes more flexible start using your ring finger. In time you may even be able to us the middle finger on the G string.
Barring 3 strings also sets up for hammer on b3rd to 3rd very common move using this triad shape
1 Like
Thank you. I too have been using 3 fingers, but have wanted to push through an finally, finally get the barre to work.
Good suggestion on Grip 3. Will give that a go. I have tried both 2/3 and 3/4 on g and b, but not barre on g and b. Do you not mute e with your ring finger?
Thank you.
1 Like
No I dont mute high e but I think most do, as I said I have a very flexible ring finger at the first joint unlike my index finger. This also allows me to play A shape barre chords and get the high e string on the bare to ring out.
1 Like
I love these triads. I have been fighting to get them down since spring. I feel like all my progress with them has left. So much has gone one and I failed to get back back up to where they were. Trying again before the month is over. I dont thinking will be able to get all 6 groups of strings worth unfortunatly. I know they are super valuble.
Rivers of Babylon by the Melodians is a fantastic song to practice these triad grips with. It only uses D, G, C
Its a great one for working a cool reggae beat also. Its not very fast and its got a lot of feels, so Flexing time 
Its a an old school rastafari song that I remember the adults singing when I was a kid. Later It was revived in my 20s by Sublime. I was suprised when I already knew the words.
āHow can we sing king Alphaās song in a strange land?ā
So powerful.
1 Like
Work on internalising one set of strings at a time before moving on. Stay with that group of strings until they are truly embedded. Start with just Major and minor (ie commonly used) on G B e. Get them down, use them and abuse them. Then and only then move on to D G B.
Wash rinse repeat.
3 Likes
Good advice. This helped me enormously to learn the triads on those three strings.
Start by just strumming or picking all three strings together. When youāre comfortable with the shapes, pick a basic melody for the intro and outro. Sounds great and is loads of fun. This is weeks or months of work, not days.
3 Likes
Thanks, this is what I started practicing. I have my GCD majors and minors, Was going to move up to the next set of strings with the same 3 and the minors. Now im back at it while i can before the BLIM takes over.
I really like how they sound and also how they are used all over the neck. I watched a video a year or so, the crew was filming another band and John Frusciante was in the studio and helped work out a section of a song and showed one of them to play the chords a couple of different ways in different spots and I am almost sure both were were triad types. I wish I could rememberr what the video was.
Edit: Nice way to write it out BTW, You absolutly have to take them and put them into music and use them. Other wise its not going to last in the brain.
1 Like
actually I used the triads to know the notes on the fretboard isolating the root notes, this helped me also to identify what is around the root note 
4 Likes
Super helpful thanks Jeff! I knew the triad shapes and the chord shapes were related but seeing it drawn this way made it click louder!
3 Likes
Hi Ashu, actually, there are many ways to look at the triads, you may also visualise the C-A-G-E-D structure and find the triads in it. This is the way I figured out to also link chords with solo (root notes), it helped me a lot.
2 Likes
Man I am struggling with grip 1, I canāt seem to get tip of middle finger curled in there on the third string so it doesnāt touch the second string without lifting off the mini barre. When I learnt the F chord I picked it up pretty quick, but the one F chord alternative the mini F with the mini bar on string 1 and 2 I couldnāt get it either, but I didnāt get stuck on it because i just used the other versions or the big barre F. Iāve tried reviewing different videos and working on different angles of the fingers and repositioning the mini barre but Iām finding it really hard. Iāve got it a few times but itās not the tip of my middle finger on the third string, itās the fleshy pad and Iām up on string 4 sort of just learning back on string 3. Any further down and I touch string 2. Or if I get the tip in there I canāt flatten the barre down.
2 Likes
Hello @leeriley and welcome to the Community. Thanks for commenting and sharing your frustrations. It is a common issue (as youāll see from similar comments above). Justin does mention three possible ways to hold the triad grip though 1st finger barre and 2nd finger on G string is the āoptimalā and most common way. Yet, it is the one you are struggling with.
Look at Justinās hand in action, not as part of a separate slow-mo demonstration.
1st finger bends back slightly from its first joint. 2nd finger reaches up almost straight until its tip is bent in towards the string. One immediate change you could make that may prove effective is to extend how far you place the 1st finger barre. Reach out to barre all three strings and then try to bring 2nd finger alongside on the G string.
Good luck.
Richard has great advice, as always!
Also, try different positions for your fretting hand thumb - for my hand shape, Iāve realized I need to move my thumb a bit lower than its usual position, to get strings 1 and 2 ringing consistently, especially on wider necked guitars.
1 Like