Thanks for the reply Shane, that explains it. I don’t remember Justin mentioning excluding the repeating notes… maybe I just missed it.
What are the benefits of expressing chords in Triad form?
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Hey Pat,
Triads are one of THE most important things you’ll ever learn on a guitar. They are central to music, and are everywhere.
Different forms of the same triad can be played all over the neck, opening up a myriad of different voicings, sounds etc that give rise to the great music made. Triads are also extremely beneficial in learning the notes/intervals of the fretboard.
They are essential learning. Justin covers them in detail during the course.
Cheers, Shane
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Hi Pat,
What Shane say`s is so true 
really… I remember very well my first triads lessons from Justin… after I had learned all the “normal” chords over the entire neck… and then I started with the triads, on the first day and later in the week I had the most “lightbulp” moments and smiles of my entire guitar journey after discovering that GACED (fret board logic 
) existed …
Even now I’m typing with a smile as I think back to those moments 
Greetings,Rogier
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Thanks for the encouragement Rogier. I’ll keep studying and waiting for my lightbulb moment. 
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In addition to what @sclay said, triads also help to unlock the more difficult CAGED shapes.
Every chord that we play on the guitar is derived from one of the 5 shapes in the CAGED system. It’s a great system to organize the fretboard, but not always very practical.
Why do most people learn their E-shape and A-shape barre chords first? Because they’re (relatively) easy to play in their full form all over the fretboard. Playing a full C-shape is a bit trickier, but doable.
Playing a full D-shape or G-shape is pretty difficult and not very useful. We can make those shapes usable by playing triads.
When you play a triad, you are taking a part from the full shape that contains some or all of the chord tones:
Play the thinnest three strings of a D shape and you’ve got the 5th, the root and the 3rd respectively. Easy to play, even on the higher frets.
Playing the thinnest three strings of a G shape gives you the root, the major 3rd and the root again. That’s the essence of a major chord. If you barre the 2nd, 3rd and 4th string, than you’ve got the 5th as well. A small and easy shape to play a full chord.
See where this is going? Playing triads is a more practical way of playing a CAGED shape and often it sounds better too.
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Wow! Thanks for that exposition on Triads!
I must confess it is way over my head. 
As a beginner, I’m still enjoying the excitement of learning the Note Wheel and the fact that the “formula” TTSTTTS allows me to map the major scale. I even thought it was pretty cool to be able to play Do-Re-Mi from any note on the fretboard using that formula. 
Thanks again, hopefully someday… 
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Forgive me all if I am repeating a question has previously been asked and addressed: it’s not my intent to be redundant, I just haven’t waded through all of the previous back and forth. My question is whether there is a guiding rule as to when to use one or the other of an enharmonic equivalent pair when doing this exercise. For example, for Ab min I concluded that the answer was Ab B Eb. The answer given is Ab Cb Eb. I know that B and Cb is an enharmonic equivalent pair, but is Cb more correct than B for some reason that is important to know? Thanks.
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I think the convention is that you use the name that gives you one of each note letter in the scale.
So Ab minor scale is A♭, B♭, C♭, D♭, E♭, F♭, G♭
Not A♭, B♭, B, D♭, E♭, F♭, G♭ because that has two B notes, and no C
It is really not important at all. As long as you know what note to play the actual “correct” name of it is irrelevant.
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Hello Mark,
Utilising your example, using Cb maintains and reflects the structure of the base triad, which is important. Of course, practically you are also playing B note, but B, Bb, B# is not a note in the base triad.
Cheers, Shane
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I’m going to say the same thing as @oztelemann and @sclay, but a little differently.
Think of the triad rules for naming the notes. it is 1,3,5. So the letters are ACE, not ABE in your example. Therefore you want to use the C option instead of the B.
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I’ve been thinking more about this and it is actually a necessity to give each note in the scale a different letter. Otherwise it would be complicated when writing music using standard notation. If B♭ and B are both used they would be on the same line and you would need to keep using the natural sign to differentiate them. And it would be visually confusing for musicians who see things in patterns. It is much more obviously a triad if it is written on three consecutive lines.
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That makes sense, thanks.
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Good answer given and, as you since reflected, the naming is important. 
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