Piano: Chords (and pop examples): An Open Learning Guide

In elementary piano, the left hand (lower notes) typically plays chords, while the right hand plays the melody. 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.

[Notice that the chord is composed of three notes, C, F, and A. While this is still a F Chord, it is not in it's "natural" state. C Major, is composed of C, E, and G and has a normal, 5, 3, 1 left hand finger pattern. This chord is in its "natural" state, the state of not being inverted. This means that we take the degrees or 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the scale to compose the chord. Whenever a chord follows the pattern that C Major does, it is a regular chord. F Major, which follows a different pattern, is called an inverted chord (second inversion). Every chord has 3 different patterns. The regular pattern, which looks like the C Major chord above. 1st Inversion (not shown) means that the first note of the chord, (for example, let's use the C Major chord, in which the first note is C) goes to the top of the pattern (So you play, with finger 5, E, finger 3, G, and finger 1, C.) Second inversion, which looks like F or G Major, involves putting the next note (still using the C chord, E in this case) on top of your fingering pattern (played finger 5, G, finger 2, C and finger 1, E). Using inversions helps you to play chords quicker without having to constantly move your hand. Take note, though, that different inversion produce different sounds, so pick the one that is best for your situation.]

Practice moving between C major, F major, and G major -- you can combine them in lots of ways. Most pop songs, and many rock songs, rely on these chords heavily. See if you can figure out "If I Had a Million Dollars":

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.

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. 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.

A solid understanding of scales will make learning new chords easier. Check out the section on Scales for further information. A basic major chord is formed from what is called a triad. A triad is the first, third, and fifth notes in a scale (eg. the C chord = C, E, G). Therefore, if you know the scale, you can easily learn a new chord from playing those three notes of the chord. Minor chords are played in a similar manner. 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). This is a minor chord. 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.

Sometimes, when looking at chords, you will see something that looks like C7, Cmaj7 or Cdim, etc. (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. to play a 7th chord, simply play the seventh note in the scale (with the triad), but drop it by one half step. To play the major 7th is even easier. All you have to do for a Maj7 is to play the seventh along with the original triad. a diminished (dim) chord is a bit more difficult to learn at first, but will soon become second nature. 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. Think of it as a "minor minor" chord. Also, a diminished chord is often played with a sixth (eg. Cdim = C, Eb, Gb, A). There are many other types of chords which will be discussed a bit later. 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. Diminished 5th, diminished chord. This is a good way to recognize chords by ear when played separately or when you know most of your intervals by ear. There are other types of chords that are a bit easier to construct, such as the augmented one. It is called Augmented because the augmented interval is the 5th. So for example, in the c major scale, the regular pattern for this chord would be the notes c, e and g#.

Learning chords are good for memorizing, sight-reading and helps you to learn theory. They're helpful in improvisation too.

Like most rhythms that are out there, pianists always have their job. For most pop, a sustain pedal is used. The sustain pedal on a regular piano is usually the one to the rightmost side of the set of the (two or one) other pedal(s). For most of the pop songs the piano uses a passive style, in which you usually play a chord like this: (left hand): C. (right hand) c, e, g two times, before moving on to a different chord. add a bit of playing to your style. you can use the pedal, pressing it when you play the chord, and releasing it as soon as you play a different chord, then pressing it before you release the keys. This is why piano involves coordinated (feet) and hands. You can also try a bit of syncopation, in which you might play the chords with your left hand and then with your right hand, both chords not at the same time but one after the other. The faster you do it the more coordination you are going to have to use. Now that you have hopefully experimented a bit with these styles, lets move out onto something else.

Left and right hands play the same chords, either syncopated or together, the choice is yours.

Source and licence

Text adapted from Piano/Chords (and pop examples) by Wikibooks contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0. Paragraphs have been selected and abridged, and formatting adjusted. This adapted text is shared under the same licence. Contributor history.