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    Piano Chord Guide With Pictures and Theory

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    CaptainAggelos1

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    Piano Chord Guide With Pictures and Theory

    Uploaded by

    CaptainAggelos1
    7 views5 pages

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

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    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

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    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as pdf or txt
    7 views5 pages

    Piano Chord Guide With Pictures and Theory

    Uploaded by

    CaptainAggelos1

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    You are on page 1of 5

    On this site you can learn the chords on the piano (or keyboard, synthesizer) plus the theory

    behind. Choose from


    the menus to get a piano chord in a certain category and for a specific note. The chords are illustrated with pictures
    and short explanations are given to increase your understanding.

    See all C chords ›


    D

    See all D chords ›


    E

    See all E chords ›


    F

    See all F chords ›


    G

    See allSETTINGS
    COOKIE G chords ›
    A

    See all A chords ›


    B

    See all B chords ›

    See diagrams in different chord categories:

    Major chords Minor chords Seventh chords Extended chords Sus chords Dim chords Aug Chords Add Chords
    Altered Chords

    You can learn all these categories of piano chords in this guide. The recommendation is to start with the major and
    minor triads (meaning three-note chords), which are the most common chords.

    Reversed chord finder ›

    What is a chord?
    A chord is a group of notes that can be played together and function as the harmony in music. There are lots of
    different chords that can be organized in different groups and categories. One thing that differ among chords is how
    many notes that are included. There are triads (three notes), four-note (sometimes called tetrachords) and five-note
    chords. In addition, chords with six or seven notes also exist. See in-depth summary of chord types.

    Building chords
    COOKIE SETTINGS
    A good way to learn chords on the piano is to be familiar with how they are constructed. The Cmaj7 chord adds one
    note to C, the seventh in the C major scale. The Cm7 adds one note to Cm, the seventh in the C minor scale.
    Looking at the extended chord (e.g. C7, C9, C11), they are adding notes using intervals from the root of the chords
    with seventh, ninth and eleventh degrees.

    ... And how to play piano chords?


    When you know which notes that belong to a chord, you can play it in several ways. A chord can be played by
    pressing down all the relevant keys simultaneously or each at a time. As you make progress, you will find more ways
    of altering the outcome. It is also important to use the right fingers and this is called fingerings.

    Hands

    So which hand do you play chords on piano with? The answer is that it depends.

    For musical accompaniment (i.e. you play in a band or with a singer) you can choose to play only with one hand or
    with both, depending on how advanced things you are playing – when playing chords including many notes, using
    two hands can be advantageous (see Two-hands chords). Other piano techniques include playing chords in two
    parts (e.g. the root note first and when the rest of the notes or the root followed by the whole chord on a higher
    octave, called stride chords).

    If you play solo, you are mostly playing the chords with your left hand and the melody with your right. This is far more
    natural than the opposite because the harmony and melody sound better combined this way.

    Fingerings

    The fingers to use when playing piano chords varies. Here are some advice to lead you to right practice:

    In general, avoid using the thumb for the black keys.


    ButSETTINGS
    COOKIE for the most time (i.e. when the first note is not a black key) you should involve the thumb.
    Always strive for the most natural position for the hand.
    The most common fingerings for triads using left-hand are, in order: little finger (5), middle finger (3) and thumb
    (1).
    The most common fingerings for triads using right-hand are, in order: thumb (1), middle finger (3) and little finger
    (5).

    The numbers are used to simplify and represent the five fingers from thumb (1) to little finger (5), regardless if the left
    or right hand is concerned. On this site you can find fingerings for the chords, these are suggestions that strives to
    follow the standard way, but must not be optimal in all situations or for all hands.

    Exercises could be done for developing independence among the fingers. Normally, the ring fingers are the weakest
    and need the most strength training. See fingerings illustrated with pictures.

    Combining them

    After you learned some chords, the next step is to combine them into progressions.

    How to read the diagrams?


    On the image below you can see one example of how a piano chord is presented on this site including a diagram:

    COOKIE SETTINGS
    A red color means that the key is part of the chord that is in focus. To play the actual chord on a piano, press down
    all keys marked in red (if needed, see a diagram compared to a realistic picture). Since the pattern of keys repeat
    itself on the keyboard, you can place your hand in many positions. You will notice, however, that there is more bass
    on the left part of the keyboard and more treble as you go to the right. Therefore, you should strive for placing your
    hand somewhere in the middle.

    Graphics

    To understand the pictures used in the piano chord guide it is to your advantage to know all the notes on the
    keyboard.

    Notation

    When looking at piano chord symbols, we often see # (pronounced sharp) or b (pronounced flat), for example C# or
    Db.
    Then the chord is written with a sole letter, as in C, it is a major chord. A chord written as Cm means C minor.
    Sus, Dim and Aug are abbreviations for suspended, diminished and augmented.
    For inverted chords a slash is used between the original chord name and the alternative bass note (i.e. C/E).
    A parenthesis can sometimes be seen in the chord name, for example C(#5), meaning that the chord has an
    COOKIE SETTINGS

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