Lesson 3 - For Starters, Master the Chords

Mastering piano chords is essential for a budding pianist, even if you do not really intend to play on a professional level. That being said, it is also true that once you become very familiar with the chords, you will probably be good enough to entertain a good number of people craving entertainment. And who knows, you might be able to build up a fan base for yourself!

If you could only play one instrument in your life, choose the piano. Why? It’s because piano, considered by many as the ultimate musical instrument, has a wider range of octaves and can actually produce a variety of musical styles ranging from classical to jazz to rock. As most musicians say, once you learn how to play the piano, you can play any other type of instrument.

So now, you probably have an idea why learning piano chords is very important. We cannot overstress the fact that once you will master the piano chords, you will understand and will be able to play chords on other instruments as well.

We learned what staves, flats, sharps, major and minor notes, musical notation, crochets, minim and semibreve, and bars are. To produce music, one must make use of and apply this knowledge. Familiarization with these piano essentials will allow you to play simple lullabies and folk songs as well as complex classical pieces.

On the other hand, if what you want is to simply provide musical accompaniment to a melody or a song, then all you need is to get comfortable with the piano chords. Chords are nothing but combinations of musical notes, which also contain the route note of each chord. Each combination has its own rhythm, melody, and mood. You will be surprised at the number of chord combinations musicians came up with. You could also create a combination yourself!

It is also important to remember that the mood of a particular song is also determined by its rhythm, which consists of the crochets, minims, and semibreves. Previously, we also discussed the rhythms 4/4, and 2/4, and so on in bar. The piano chord accompaniment has to follow these rhythm patterns while in play.

You will also remember the staves. The lower stave generally provides the accompaniment. The notes are played using your left hand while the right hand plays the melody part. Meanwhile, if you are providing accompaniment to a pop song, for example, you can use both hands to play the same chord on each side of the keyboard.

At this stage, you should be able to grasp another very important aspect of piano --- that is the playing of scales. A scale is a set of notes that moves up or down the musical alphabet. A song or a melody can commence on any note or key of the musical alphabet --- for example, C, D, E, and so on. The scale, or the set of notes, that should follow in each instance will vary accordingly. This can be on white keys (major notes), or on a combination of the white keys and black keys (sharps or flats).

This one is easy to remember. Only the “C” scale will have all white keys or major notes. Now if you try the octave of notes commencing on F major, a white key, (which is above the middle “C” to your right) you will note that if you continue to use white keys only, at one point it sounds odd. This is when you play the note “B.” To correct this, you have to play the black key
“B flat” instead, and again every thing will fall in to place. Similarly in the scale of “G,” below middle “C,” the note F major has be changed to “F sharp.”

Remember, a scale can have either flats or sharps in it but never both in the same scale. A general tune that starts in the key “F” ends also in “F.” Similarly in the scale “G,” the tune ends in the key “G.”

Now we will get to the subject of piano chords again.

The musical chords, as applied for a piece of music, are the same whatever the instrument is. Whether it is a piano or a guitar, the combination of notes is the same. The principal types of chords are

• major chords
• minor chords
• diminished and augmented chords

All chords --- major, minor, or other --- are played in combination with other chords, depending on the note progression of the melody (played with the right hand). The chord changes (played with the left hand) are brought in at critical junctures of the melody to enhance the quality of the combined notes. The played chords must always be in harmony with the notes of the melody. In playing chords, one must play the relevant notes all at once.

The major chord roots can be A, B, C, and so on for all the major keys in the octave. The C major chord is the most popular, mainly because the beginner finds it easy to understand, along with the other chords in the set. For example, the note combination for “C” major chord would be “C, E, and G,” where all are white keys with one white key gap between each finger playing the 3 notes. The change in “C” will be either to “F” major or “G” major, depending on the song or the melody. Both can be played with the same finger arrangement but starting from the root note either F or G.

Every major key has a relative minor key. For example, in the major key “A,” the key combination is “E,” “A,” and “C#” If instead of C # one plays the note “C,” the whole character of the chord changes to “A” minor, which is, in fact, the minor key relative to C major. As with the major chords, each minor chord has a triad, or three chords set, used in the accompaniment of melodies based on that minor chord. In the case of the “A” minor, the set of chords is “A minor,” “E7,” and “D minor.” Here, the E7th is formed by the notes combination of “B, E, G# and D.” The “D minor” is formed by the notes “F, D, and A.”

There are 3 diminished chords which use 4 notes in each, and 4 augmented chords that use 3 notes in each. Interestingly, the nomenclature for these could be any one of the constituent notes of each chord.

Now that you have some understanding of the chords, the learning process becomes so much easier. But keep in mind, that practice makes perfect.