learn to play piano by Common Chords
Source:Internet Posted by:Learntopianoonline.com Date:2009-12-07 Click:
Ok congratulations on getting this far, you're almost ready to unlock a whole host of songs! You just need to know a couple of the most common chord types and how to work them out then you'll be in business!
Once you work out the notes of the chords given below you would normally play the chord by pressing all the notes of the chord at the same time. Every time you work out a new chord you should try this to hear how the chord sounds.
The Major Chord
You've already seen three of these(C F and G) before, in Silent Night. Now I am going to give you the power to work out any Major chord anywhere on the keyboard.
Say we wanted to work out the major chord G Major the process is as follows(its probably best to practise this at the keyboard).
Find the note G on the keyboard this is known as the root note of the chord.
G major chord
So the Major chord consists of the root note, a note 4 half tones above the root note, a note 3 half tones above the middle note. Thats it! As soon as you read that you just learnt all the major chords on the keyboard!
The Major chord consists of the an interval of 4 half tones followed by an interval of 3 half tones
Lets try another one, work out the A Major chord.
Find the root note, in this case A.
Count up 4 half tones from A to get C#.
Count up 3 half tones from C# to get E
And wolah! we have the A major chord, A - C# - E!
Ok you're almost there, two more chords to go.
The Minor Chord
The minor chord is another chord that is used commonly in many popular songs, it has a sadder more laid back tone to it then the major chord.
The Minor chord cosists of an interval of 3 half tones followed by an interval of 4 half tones
What does this mean? Well the process is the same as the process to work out the major chord. Suppose we wanted the G minor chord (commonly denoted as Gm) we would start by finding the root note, in this case G. Now count up 3 half tones from G to get Bflat, now count up 4 half tones from Bflat to get D and theres your Gm chord, G - Bflat - D!
I want you to convince yourself that the following minor chords are indeed correct, it will be easier to do this if you have a keyboard in front of you.
Am = A C E
Cm = C Eflat G
Fm = F Aflat C
The 7th Chord
This is another very popular chord in music, it is known as the 7th chord or dominant 7th. It is usually written on chord sheets as C7, D7, E7 etc, and it is very similar to the major chord.
The 7th chord consists of an interval of 4 half tones followed by an interval of 3 half tones followed by an interval of 3 half tones
The 7th chord thus is comprised of four notes, not three like the previous chords.
I will walk you through the process of working out a 7th chord. Suppose we want E7, we find the root note - E on the keyboard.
Now count up 4 half tones from E to get to G#
Now count up 3 half tones from G# to get you to B
Now count up 3 half tones from B to get you to D
So your E7 chord would consist of E - G# - B - D
Try to work out the following 7th chords
G7 = G B D F
A7 = A C# E G
E7 = E G# B D
Phew! That was a lot of information wasnt it? Well now that its done, you are ready to forge on and play some tunes!
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