

When you can do this easily, practice with your eyes closed. Do this every day it takes only few minutes.Ħ.

When going up, black key chords are sharps (#) and when going down they are flats (b).ĥ. Then go to C# and do the same and continue to the next C. Example: C-major, C-minor, C-diminished, C-augmented. On every note of the chromatic scale play major, minor, diminished and augmented chord. Always say the name of the chord before playing the chord.ģ. The chords in the following steps should be played in both hands at the same time in root position. If you have, that's great! If not, please scroll back up and review.Ģ. By now, you have hopefully learned what diminished, augmented, minor and major chords are and how they are built. Learning chords are good for memorizing, sight-reading and helps you to learn theory. So for example, in the c major scale, the regular pattern for this chord would be the notes c, e and g#. It is called Augmented because the augmented interval is the 5th. There are other types of chords that are a bit easier to construct, such as the augmented one. This is a good way to recognize chords by ear when played separately or when you know most of your intervals by ear. A diminished chord can be derived from the fact that it is compressed between a frame of two intervals in which there is a third minor and there is a diminished 5th involved. There are many other types of chords which will be discussed a bit later. Also, a diminished chord is often played with a sixth (eg. To play a diminished chord, play the triad, but instead of playing the second and third normally, play the second as you would in a minor chord (dropped one half step) and also play the fifth dropped one half step. a diminished (dim) chord is a bit more difficult to learn at first, but will soon become second nature. All you have to do for a Maj7 is to play the seventh along with the original triad. to play a 7th chord, simply play the seventh note in the scale (with the triad), but drop it by one half step. (by the way, it does not have to be a C chord) These chords (all chords, in fact) are based around the triad that we talked about earlier. Sometimes, when looking at chords, you will see something that looks like C7, Cmaj7 or Cdim, etc. 3.2.3 Adapting Piano Chords for the KeyboardĪdvanced Chord Structures.3.1.1 Practicing chord changes and chord inversions.If you also have been paying attention to some of the information on the sections that discussed intervals you can also have an alternate way of creating chords without needing to use the scale. Play the first, third, and fifth notes, but take the third note and drop it one half step (a half step is one key, including black keys, so Cm would be C, Eb, G). Minor chords are played in a similar manner. Therefore, if you know the scale, you can easily learn a new chord from playing those three notes of the chord. A triad is the first, third, and fifth notes in a scale (eg. A basic major chord is formed from what is called a triad. Check out the section on Scales for further information. Here are some other chords, for reference:Ī solid understanding of scales will make learning new chords easier. Green Day's When I Come Around is a canonical example - it's nothing but a repeating loop: C Major, G Major, A Minor, F Major, then back to C Major.

Now that you have A minor (take a C Major chord, and move the top note up), you can play a good proportion of pop tunes. Keep in mind that when playing the C chord, for example, you don't have to play the c below the e below the g - you can put them in whatever order you want, perhaps playing the g an octave below, then the c, then the e. I'd buy you a house (I would buy you a house) If I had a million dollars (If I had a million dollars) See if you can figure out "If I Had a Million Dollars": Most pop songs, and many rock songs, rely on these chords heavily. Practice moving between C major, F major, and G major - you can combine them in lots of ways. You can play a surprising number of songs with just these two chords! Now move the top two notes up by one key each: this is F Major: (Major chords tend to sound cheerful while minor chords may sound sad or cool - this varies, though,depending on context.) If you're playing pop or rock and singing, you might want to play the chords with the right hand and the bass note of each chord with the left hand. In elementary piano, the left hand (lower notes) typically plays chords, while the right hand plays the melody.
