The most frequent triad I grab is still this one. Adding extensions, suspending the third, or even dropping the root in favor of the maj. 7 all make this shape a lot more interesting than the basic 1/3/5.
Great Chords – m11
I recently picked this one up from a book of jazz chords. I love the sound of the 4th/11th versus the 5th with the m7 still in there.
Useful Triads – Major: Strings 2/3/4
These are probably the most useful major close position triads on the neck, or at least the ones I grab most frequently. I’ve been working through triads and spread triads to have a full range of them on tap as needed. Nothing fancy but worth committing to memory, particularly including the interval locations.
Modal Arpeggios – Phrygian
I’ve always found Phrygian difficult to use, but using the characteristic flat second in the context of a minor arpeggio rounds off some of the edges. These tend to look a bit scale-like, but really you find the main pinky-ring-index motion up the core of the arpeggio remains the same, and you just have the extra ♭2 to color the sound.
Modal Arpeggios – Dorian
Minor sister to Lydian. I’ve found this to be a good way to highlight the key tones of the Dorian mode. Outside of the major sixth, there’s no difference between this and natural minor.
Modal Arpeggios – Lydian
I’ve been struggling with ways to highlight modal sounds lately and figured I should try and work out characteristic arpeggios. I don’t know if this is an accepted concept or not, but I’ve found it useful, so figured I’d throw them out there. The first one is a Lydian arpeggio, which is just the major 7 with an added #4/#11.
