So which notes do you play to make what chord? With eighty-eight keys on the piano, that makes an impossible number of combinations, right? The piano keyboard is made up of only twelve tones. These tones, called the chromatic scale, repeat as you go up the keyboard.
Each white or black key is included in the scale, and is a half step away from the keys next to it. As you go up the keyboard, twelve half steps will bring you right back to where you started in the sequence of tones. When you make a chord, the distance, measured in half steps, between the tones of a chord determines what kind of chord it is.
Most chords in modern-day Western music are either a major chord or a minor chord. Ninety-nine percent of all popular music, and almost as much classical music, is built on these two kinds of chords and their variations. Major and minor chords are made up of three tones, called the root, the third, and the fifth.
Chords are always named for their root. The C major chord, for example, will have a C as its root and lowest note. The third is going to be the third tone of the C major scale, or an E. The fifth will be the fifth tone of the C major scale, or the G.
A major chord sounds like a major chord no matter what note it has for its root. This is because the number of half steps between each of the notes will always be the same. Between the root and the third you will always have four half steps, an interval known as a major 3rd. The top two notes of the chord, from the third to the 5th, will be three half steps apart, or a minor 3rd.
This is how you build a major chord starting from ANY of the twelve tones of the chromatic scale. Say you want to make a D major chord.
Count up four half steps from D, and you get F-sharp. Then count up three more half steps from F-sharp, you get A. The D major chord is D, F-sharp, A. Now say you want to start on a black key, such as E-flat. Major is one type of chord quality, as is minor. Each chord quality has its own distinct sound.
Some will sound happy, some will sound sad, and others will sound mysterious. Learning these different chord types will make writing chord progressions easier. There are 9 common chord qualities that you should be aware of. You may have heard of a few of these, while others may be foreign. Each section will contain an explanation of the mood of a chord, instruction on how to build it, an audio clip of how it sounds, and an image of the chord on a piano roll. As you can see, we start counting the half steps from the note above the last one.
Minor chords follow the same pattern as major chords except the middle note is down a half step. Although they seem almost identical, the difference is significant. Listen to the audio clip below, which will play a C Major chord followed by a C Minor chord. Listen for how the tone of the chords differ. One way to remember the different chord formulas is to memorize the intervals between the notes in the chord.
For a minor chord, you start with the root, move up 3 semitones to the minor third, then move up another 4 semitones 7 semitones from the root to the the perfect fifth. Thus, the formula for a minor chord is: Similarly, we can represent the formula for building a major chord as With your right hand, push down G with your first finger, B with your third finger, and D with your fifth finger.
This is a G major triad. Next, you will learn how to play an A minor triad. A is two keys to the right of G, or the next white key above G. Go to the lesson With your right hand, push down A with your first finger, C with your third finger, and E with your fifth finger. Nice job! You have made an A minor triad. The final chord shape you will learn right now is the B diminished triad. The note B is located two keys to the right of A, or the next white key above A. Push down B with your right hand first finger, D with your third finger, and F with your fifth finger.
You have just played a B diminished triad. Spooky, right? What similarities do you notice between these chord shapes? They all use the same three fingers: thumb, middle, and pinky finger. They only include white piano keys and they are all made of only natural notes, meaning there are no sharps or flats in them. You will learn more chords using sharps and flats as you progress. Go to the lesson How chords are notated in music Now that you know some basic piano chord shapes , how will you know how to recognize when a song calls for a particular chord?
Chords are notated in a few different ways. One way chords are notated is through chord symbols. A chord symbol is a shorthand method to indicate a particular chord. Chord symbols are generally notated in the area above the staff or the area where music is notated. The symbols for a major chord looks like this:. The symbols for a minor chord look like this:. You do not need to learn a million chords in order to play your favorite songs on the piano.
In fact, most popular songs only contain a few simple chords. With this information, you will be able to play most of your favorite pop tunes just by looking at a chord chart!
If you are interested in learning the piano, try enrolling in Skoove Premium. With over lessons, monthly updates, one on one support from Skoove piano instructors, and access to special courses, you can start playing easy piano chords, as well as sophisticated music compositions and theory concepts like the circle of fifths. The Skoove artificial intelligence engine listens and helps you to improve as you play.
It really is the best of both worlds. Plus, you have a seven day free trial waiting for you! What do you have to lose? Start free trial So what are the four chords you need to learn to play? The four piano chords you need to learn how to play to unlock literally hundreds of songs are: C major, A minor, F major, and G major.
You just learned the secret formula for the successful careers of many popular songwriters from the hits of Ben E. So how can you learn to play these basic major and minor chords?
Check out the diagrams and examples of these piano chords for beginners below to get started! Go to the lesson What is a chord chart? A chord chart is another shorthand method of notating music. Here the third is replaced by either the fourth note sus4 or the second note sus2 in the scale. With the knowledge about the categories of chords explained above, you will be familiar with the most chords you could stumble upon. There are however even more categories and some less common chords are:.
Test your ability to distinguish chord types in this ear training module. Inverted chords are very common and means that the notes in a chord shifts their positions. If we take a major triad as an example, there are two inversions possible. The first inversion uses the second note as bass note and the second inversion uses the third note as bass note. Exactly how you play chords will depend on several factors: are you playing solo, together with a singer or in a full band?
If you play solo, you will probably play chords with your left hand and the melody with your right. If you are accompanying a singer, you would focus less on the melody notes and perhaps split up the chords on both your hands.
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