Magic of 3rds! Transform Your Playing + Understanding of Music Theory and Harmony

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Published May 28, 2026

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In today's guitar lesson we learn the magic of 3rds which can transform your playing and understanding of music theory and harmony. This lesson takes us from a beginner to advanced approach in understanding 3rds from a basic definition all the way to applying them and stacking them throughout a given key. 3rds can teach us the roman numerals and chord progressions of a key by actually seeing, hearing and playing them on the guitar. The exercises serve as a great way to get you going on applying them to the fretboard and eventually playing them effortlessly in any key, chord or song.

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Video Chapters:
00:00 Lesson Introduction
01:23 Defining Major and Minor 3rds
03:13 Chords are 3rds!
05:54 Playing all the 3rds of a Key
06:25 E Shape of G scale
06:42 1st Exercise - 3rds Follow Roman Numerals
08:45 Descending
09:13 Ascending and Descending
09:42 Descending and Ascending
10:14 2nd Exercise - Stacking two 3rds Creates Triads
11:22 Descending
11:48 Ascending and Descending
12:00 Descending and Ascending
12:21 3rd Exercise - Stacking three 3rds Creates 7th chords
14:16 Ascending
15:32 Descending
16:02 Making Music
17:06 Harmonic 3rds
17:55 Horizontal 3rds
19:12 Implications are Endless