Piano Essentials – About Piano Chords

Chords are a wonderful way to start playing easier songs on a piano and many beginners use them. At the beginning it’s totally natural to try to memorize a few of the basic chords, but that is really not a good long-term plan. If you learn what’s behind them, if you understand them, it’s much easier. Hopefully, this article will be of some help.

There are many chords out there, theoretically thousands. And that, of course, is the main reason why it’s not really a good idea to try to memorize them. True, not all of theoretically possible chords are actually usable in real life, but still.

What you should do instead is learn how chords are made. And this is exactly what we’ll focus on here. We’ll start with the basic triads, which are chords that contain three unique notes.

We’ll take a closer look at a C major. You’re probably familiar with it, it’s on of the most well known chords. C major consists of three different notes – C, E, and G. The starting note, the root note (after which it is named) is C. Remember that all chords have roots in a specific note.

There is actually a formula which tells you how major chords are made. They are made up of the 1st, the 3rd and the 5th note of the major scale. So now if you know the scale, you can easily figure out the chord. Let’s take a look at C major. C major scale is: C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C. The root note is, of course, C, the third note is E, and the fifth note is G. So there you have it – C E G.

What about minor chords? It’s pretty much the same, there is just a slightly different formula. It goes like this: 1st, lowered 3rd, and the 5th note. The only difference is, as you can see, just in the middle note.

All chords are made up this way. So if you understand what’s behind them, you’ll have no problems learning them. Good luck.

For more information about the subject and a list of basic major and minor chords, visit learn piano chords. Also check out Let It Be piano lesson.