Triad Exercise

Build close-position triads across the guitar neck or piano, then practise their inversions in time. Choose one chord or a progression; each inversion plays one note per beat at the selected BPM.

Guitar voicings use standard tuning (E–A–D–G–B–E) and four adjacent-string groups; the B string is tuned a major third below high E. Guitar notes are visual guides, not clickable. Scroll over the neck or use Neck position; playback follows a shape when it moves beyond the visible frets. Only the current inversion's three notes are shown. They play one at a time, with the sounding note blinking blue; the next inversion replaces the previous shape after all three notes. Guitar uses a synthesized plucked tone and piano a synthesized piano-like tone. Along string set: stay on the chosen three strings and alternate low-to-high and high-to-low arpeggios. Each chord advances through its consecutive inversions, including the starting inversion one octave higher. With All groups and Up and back, play up and back down the same string set before moving to the next. When looping All groups, retrace the full completed route through the sets in reverse before restarting at home. The last set completes its up-and-down run only once, then the return continues on set 4-3-2. Across strings: move through sets 6-5-4, 5-4-3, 4-3-2 and 3-2-1, then back through them in reverse. At either edge, stay on that set for the next inversion before reversing across the strings. Pick low-to-high on the way toward string 1 and high-to-low on the way toward string 6. Each return to a chord on a string set advances it to its next inversion. In an open treble shape, a tone below open high E is played on the B string instead. A single triad makes four cross-string sweeps, covering three inversions and the octave. Progressions keep cycling the written chord order during both cross-string directions, making at least six sweeps and finishing a complete chord cycle with all three inversions covered. Longer or odd-length progressions may need extra sweeps to finish both cycles. For a repeating cross-string study, choose Ascending and Loop; Up and back also retraces down the neck. Across strings always uses all four string sets; it is not a jump to whichever set happens to be closest. The Direction selector controls travel up or down the neck, not the alternating cross-string sweeps. Up and back retraces the shapes and notes in reverse, repeating the turnaround shape. The chord name follows the notes actually played, including on the return. Loops repeat the home shape to begin the next run. Piano descending runs play arpeggios high-to-low. Piano practice covers 1–3 octaves (2 by default); the keyboard expands for the highest three-octave inversions. Piano-only controls separately toggle all key names and the sounding note's name. The title names the sounding chord and its First, Second or Third inversion (numbered 1–3 here, with First meaning root position). The neck resets to fret 1 at the start and finish. The final played chord stays displayed. BPM counts the meter's written note unit: quarter notes in /4, eighth notes in /8. One bar of clicks prepares the tempo; clicks stop before the first practice note and do not return during loops. Download MIDI saves the selected exercise as a .mid file with the same notes, order, tempo and meter (guitar or piano sound, optional count-in on the drum channel, and a marker naming each triad). With Loop on, the file contains one full loop cycle so it can be looped in any DAW or notation program.

Each progression chord shows its Roman numeral in its own key; change a chord's key with its Key popup, or a whole set's key with the popup at the top of its box. Progression root only transposes a popular pattern while loading it: uppercase major, lowercase minor, ° diminished, + augmented, and sus2/sus4. Accidentals are relative to major-scale degrees (for example ♭III, ♭VI, ♭VII in minor). Secondary-dominant triads such as V/ii and V/V are also available; slash numerals name their temporary target, not a different bass note. Roman-numeral conventions. Load progression and Load preset replace the list; Append progression and Append preset add a new key set after it; Add chord joins the last set when it is in the same key. Clear progression starts a fresh list.

Ready. Select a chord or load a progression.