The distance between any two notes is called a musical interval, so we have intervals of 2nds, 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, etc. But intervals also have qualities such as major, minor, perfect, diminished. In this video we take a look at how to use major and minor 3rds to create chords of various sorts by stacking them on top of each other. All musicians need to know this, but piano players particularly, since we deal in chords all the time (singers, sax players, trombone players, etc. don’t normally play chords as such, since they are usually only playing one note at a time).

Watch this short video and you will quickly understand:

Wouldn’t music be boring if only one note was allowed to be heard at a time? A single melody is certainly pretty but there’s something about harmony that is so much better. Harmony is made with chords.

A chord is simply two or more notes being played at the same time. There are many different types of chords. There are chords that can be identified and those that are called clusters. Think of a cluster as going up to a piano and sitting on the keys. It’s not pretty but it sometimes serves a musical purpose.

But we’re not here to talk about clusters. Before we can break the rules, we have to know the rules so today we’re going to learn how to construct basic chords.
First, basic chords are built using a scale. Let’s think of the C Major scale for a minute. The notes are C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C. If we were to number the notes of the scale, C=1, D=2, E=3, F=4, and so on, these are called scale degrees. (C is scale degree #1)

If we were to build a C chord, we would use scales degrees 1,3,5. This is called a “1” chord because it’s build on top of the first scale degree. (They are also expressed using Roman numerals) The notes of a C chord or 1 chord are C-E-G. Another way to think of building a chord is to build it with every other note. Notice with our C chord, there is a note in between each note of the chord. (D is between C and E, and F is between E and G) Can you figure out the notes of a D chord? If you came up with D-F-A, you understand how to spell basic chords.

Any chord that is constructed using the notes of a scale are called diatonic chords. That means that we didn’t change any notes when we constructed all of the chords in the key. Your piano teacher may have given you chord exercises to practice chord fingerings and now you know how to construct all of the “diatonic” chords using the key signature.

Of course, it isn’t that easy. There are four basic types of chords: Major, minor, augmented, and diminished.

Remember that C chord? (C-E-G) This is a Major chord. We know this because major chords have a Major third between the first two notes and a minor third between the top two notes. (Check out our interval article by clicking here) If we want to make our chord minor, we lower the 3rd (the middle note) by one half step. Now our C chord is a C minor chord (C-Eb-G) and it has a minor third between the bottom two notes and a major third between the top two notes.

To make a chord diminished, we lower the 5th (the top note) by one half step. We now have a C diminished chord (C-Eb-Gb) and it has a minor third between both the bottom two and top two notes. Finally, to make a chord augmented we once again begin with a major chord (C-E-G) and we raise the 5th (the top note) by one half step (C-E-G#). Notice that we have a Major third between both the top two and bottom two notes.

These types of chords are used by composers just as colors are used by a painter. Different combinations of chords produce beautiful music.

Chords can get complicated but if you start with the basics, you’ll be a chord expert in no time.

There are thousands of chords you COULD play, but in any given key there are only 3 that are “primary” chords. That means they are indigenous to that key, just like you are indigenous to your family. If you have 3 people in your family, those 3 people are probably going to show up in your home a thousand times more often than some stranger, and hundreds of times more often than even a neighbor.

Just so, the 3 primary chords in any key are the TONIC CHORD, THE SUB-DOMINANT CHORD, AND THE DOMINANT CHORD. These 3 chords are often notated as the I chord, the IV chord, and the V chord – in other words, the chord built on the first degree of the scale, the chord built on the 4th degree of the scale, and the chord built on the 5th degree of the scale.

Watch this short video and you will understand:

Click on either of these links:

Chord Piano

Crash Course

I only know a couple chords. What can I do with them?

As it turns out, you can do a whole lot. Even if you only know a couple piano chords, by plugging in a variety of rhythm patterns you can create a really good sound.

And if you really master those two chords, you can move your hands to a different set of two chords and repeat the same pattern. And you can do it again and again.

I know musicians who don’t read music and know only a handful of chords but play professionally use patterns like this to play hundreds of songs. You might be surprised to know that many of the songs that are famililar to you contain only 3 to 6 different chords, and once you master a few different rhythm patterns using those chords, the sky is the limit as to what you can do musically.

This is not an argument for ignorance – obviously you should learn as music about music as you can. But at the same time, the lack of knowledge shouldn’t hold you back from playing and enjoying songs right now.

Watch this eight minute video and you’ll get the idea quickly how easy it is.

For a course in Rhythm Patterns click here.

Playing in the key of Db involves basing your playing on the scale of Db which contains five flats – B, E, A, D, and G. The primary chords in the key of Db are Db (tonic chord), Gb (sub-dominant chord), and Ab (dominant chord).

The seconary chords are Ebm (supertonic chord), Bbm (sub-mediant chord), and Fm (mediant chord).

Watch this short video on how to play in the key of Db.

For a complete course on How To Think In The Key, please click here.

If you are looking to create a big sound in your piano playing, please consider watching this short video on using both hands to voice 7-note chords. By using 3-notes in the right hand — 2 of the 3 playing the melody in octaves — and a 5th/4th inbetween, combined with 4-notes in the left hand which include at least two “color tones” such as 7ths, 9ths, etc. , you can conjure up a really BIG sound that makes the melody stand out while at the same time giving it a very contemporary “jazz” sound.

But don’t feel bad if you can’t pull it off right away. You wont master this by next Tuesday, as it is one of the more complex ways of voicing chords.

If you play in a trio with bass and drums this is a great style to use. If you play solo, you will need to occasionally establish the root feeling of the chord by playing the root of the chord down low and then jumping up to the chord itself.

Have you browsed our catalog of piano courses at www.playpianocatalog.com ? Lots of helpful stuff there!

Inversion seems like a strange word to use for music, doesn’t it? Actually it’s a very common term and is related to how chords are written. Composers use inversion in a variety of ways but primarily to make music sound smooth and subtle. Without inversion, chord changes would often sound jolting to the listener. Let’s look at how inversion works.

It’s important to understand that inversion deals with the lowest sounding pitch in a chord. Although we can invert a chord in a variety of ways, while we’re talking about inversion it’s only the bottom note that we’re moving. When we move other notes in a chord, we’re talking about voicing changes. Music theorists don’t have as many hard and fast rules for voice as they do for inversion.

If we look at a basic triad (remember the triad? C-E-G) When the first scale degree, also called the root, is the lowest sounding note, there is an absence of inversion. This is called root position. Root position is the most commonly used inversion (or lack of inversion) in popular music and used in traditional or classical music to end a phrase, movement, or entire piece of music. When you play a chord in root position, you are telling your listener that the piece is done. Other times, composers use it throughout a piece of music because it is a very pure an open sounding chord.

Next, if we take the “C” and put it at the top of the chord, we now have a chord that is spelled E-G-C. When the third of the chord (third scale degree) is the lowest sounding note, we have a first inversion chord. The most common use for this inversion is to make a chord a “passing” chord or bridge between two chords. It gives the bass voice a smooth walk up a scale as chords change.

While you may not notice first inversion chords as easily as you notice a root position chord, rest assured that they reside in your music quite frequently.

Now, let’s take our first inversion chord and flip it again. That “E” which is currently residing in the lowest spot will now be at the top. We’ve now inverted our chord again and we have a G-C-E chord. This second inversion chord is most commonly used in a “cadential” way. This is a big music theory term that means that this chord sets up a cadence.

For example, a I-V-I should look familiar to you if you read our article about cadences. The “V-I” is an authentic cadence. If the “I” chord before it is written in second inversion, it makes the “V” of the cadence even more of a cliff hanger than the “V” chord could do all by itself.

These are the three ways to write or invert a triad. As we get in to larger, more extended chords, they are even more inversions that serve specific purposes as well but for now, practice these inversions just with the basic triads. There’s plenty of time to learn the other types of inversions available to the composer.

Here are some ways you can “phatten” your piano chords:

1. Use color tones such as 6ths, 7ths, 9ths, etc.
2. Use crunches by playing the chord notes from the top down.
3. Use tremolos. You can often “run the tremelo” up the keyboard.
4. Use voicing in 4ths instead of 3rds.
5. Use “blue notes” – slide off black keys onto white keys.
6. Use polytonal notes (non-chordal notes) and then resolve to chord notes.
7. Use “toast notes”. Play chords crisply using staccato touch but with the pedal controling the sound.

How to play piano using all kinds of exciting techniques!

How to play piano is a subject that most everybody thinks about from time to time during their life. It is a universal desire to create music and express oneself through songs and musical pieces.

Playing piano is a wonderful skill that can stay with a person throughout his or her lifetime and bring joy to them and their family and friends.

The traditional way to learn piano is to take piano lessons and learn to read music from sheet music and piano books, and 90% of people who play do learn that way. But there is also a minority of people who learn to play the piano by using chords. Piano chords are groups of 3 music notes played at one time or at least almost at the same time.

By learning to play piano by playing the melody of a song and then matching that melody with chords in the left hand which use the same piano notes, an individual is able to get started harmonizing the songs he or she likes very quickly.

Learning to read music is a wonderful skill and I highly recommend it, but learning music theory through chord analysis is valuable too, and a skill that should be learned as quickly as possible. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=313VSLGgDyg

***For a GREAT course in music theory (understanding how music works) come on over to our Music Theory page.

What is Polytonality in Piano Playing?

Polytonality indicates that two different tonal centers are being used at the same time. Sometimes this means playing in multiple keys at once, but in this example we are speaking of using more than one chord at the same time. Watch this short video:

Then go over and check out all the awesome courses at PlayPianoCatalog!

As we all know, music is a universal language. However, music can not be music if it is not accompanied by instruments. The piano is one of the most prominent music instruments of all time. However, not many people know how to play the piano. In fact, many people like playing it but they are locked out because they do not know how to effectively do that. Learning how to play the piano is not hard nowadays. There are numerous excellent piano books on chords that can guide anyone into being a good piano player in future.

There are a variety of guide piano books on how to play the piano well. There are those that are suited for beginners and there are those that are for those that want to know how to play the piano professionally. When choosing the best book to learn how to play the piano, one is supposed to look into a few considerations. First of all, it is important to know the level of expertise that one has. This is supposed to mean that when choosing the book, the level of experience that one has with playing the piano plays a very important role. Someone with a little bit of experience will no doubt choose a book that will enable him/her get to the next level whereas, someone with little or no experience will choose a book that will teach him/her from the start to becoming a good piano player.

Another very important factor to take into consideration when choosing the best piano book online that teaches music theory is the type of instructions given. The instructions have to by all means be very easy to comprehend. The more hard it is for a piano learner, the more hard and difficult it will be for him/her to grasp anything that the book wants to teach. At the end of the day, a book with easy to understand instructions that take the piano learner from the start to the end smoothly is the best choice.

The price of the book is another very important factor to be considered. This means that one should first of compare a few books so as to know which one is the most suitable for his/her allocated budget. This is supposed to mean that one should always go for the book that is most economical and at the same time, most convenient for his/her piano playing learning needs. However, at all times when choosing the prices, it is very important to only go for a book that does not compromise on the quality of what one is supposed to learn so as to be a good piano player at the end of the day.

If one strictly adheres to all the above mentioned factors, then getting the very best in the piano learning instructional book will not be a hard thing at all. At the end of the day, the person will also become a professional piano player just like the ones he/she admires most if what he/she learns is put into practice effectively. This is what looking for the book is all about in the first place.

Things You Can Do On The Piano With Just Two Chords

If you are a relative beginner on the piano, you don’t have to know scads of chords to get started. Eventually you’ll want to learn as many as you can, of course, but you can get started with just two chords. After you feel comfortable with two, graduate to three chords. There are literally hundreds of songs you can play with just three chords. Then move to four chords – you’ll find thousands of songs you can play with just four chords. From there the sky is the limit, and you’ll discover that it gets easier as you go!

For lots more ideas on playing with just a few chords, click here: “Songs You Can Play Using Only 4 Chords!”

Sometimes people ask me why they have to learn all those different types of chords, such as augmented and diminished and 9ths and so forth. The answer is “They don’t. They can get by with just the primary chords UNLESS they want to create sounds that produce the feeling they want.” But for those of us that DO want to create some more complex sounds, it’s a good idea to learn all the possible chords.

To learn lots more about chords please go to All The Chords In The Whole Wide World!

What can you do with chords once you know them?

There are upteen zillion things you can do with chords, and the more you learn about all aspects of music theory and form and compostion and improvisation and chord progressions, the more you will be able to use chords in a creative way.

But today let’s just consider the simplest few things we can do with chords. Watch this short video:

For a complete course in 101 things to do with chords, click on this link: 101 Ways To Make Your Piano Playing Much Fuller & Exciting!

Do you love the sound of those big, fat chords that you hear some pianists play? What you are hearing is often extended chords – chords that have been extended beyond the octave range, such as 9th chords. But how do you play them? My hands are small, and I can’t reach a 9th. And even if I could, I don’t have enough fingers to play an 11th or a 13th.

The solution is to divide the chord into two parts — either using both hands or…..watch this short video and you’ll understand:

For a wonderful course on what to do with chords, please click on Piano Playing.

The basic chords of music are TRIADS – 3-note chords composed of various intervals of the scale based on the root, 3rd, and 5th and their alterations. To form a 4-note chord you simply add a note of the scale such as the 6th, 7th, or major 7th to the basic triad. This short video demonstrates how this works:

For a COMPLETE course in chords click on “All The Chords In The Whole Wide World!”

Any chord can be turned upside down simply by taking the bottom note of the chord and putting it on top – an octave higher. There are 3 positions of any 3-note chord (triad): root position, 1st inversion, and 2nd inversion. Watch this short video and you’ll grasp it quickly:

For more information on inversions click on Chords UpSide Down

Diminished triads are formed by lowering the 3rd and the 5th of a major triad. (A triad is a 3-note chord). Remember that a major triad is formed from the root, 3rd, and 5th of a major scale. Watch this short video:

For more information on diminished triads click on Diminished Chords

A triad is a 3-note chord of some kind, and an augmented triad is composed of a major 3rd stacked on top of a major third. That creates the “unbalanced” sound typical of an augmented triad. This short video demonstrates how a major triad can be turned into an augmented triad with just one change:

For more information on augmented triads and a free cheat-sheet, come over to Augmented Triads

Here’s a short video overview of the world of chords — what they are, how they are formed, and how they relate to one another.

After watching the video, click here: The Wide World of Chords — An Overview From Above