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Easy Piano Chords for Beginners

A chord in music is any set of notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. Lead sheets use chords to effectively provide notation for accompaniment for vocalists or other solos. Some knowledge of piano notes is necessary to play from lead sheets, but with some practice you can be playing in no time!

Let's start with the notes of a piano first: The piano is organized into a pattern of notes. If you look at a piano you should notice that there are alternating groups of 2 or 3 black notes. Directly to left of the two black notes is a white key, this is called "c". the white key to the right of the "c" is "d". This pattern of white notes continues until g, after g the pattern begins again at a. The black notes are the are called sharps or flats. The are raised or lowered pitches of the white keys. Between each individual key, black or white, is the musical interval called a half-step, this along with the whole-step, or interval of two keys make up the musical language.

Each musical key has its own scale, which decides the chords that can be used in that key. For now, we will focus only on major keys. Every major key has seven scale degrees: (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII) or (do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti). Each of these scale degrees is also familiarized with a certain chord. There are triads, seventh, added tone, and extended chords.Triads are the most common and will be the focus of this article.

The four types of triads
Major - a major third with a minor third on top
Minor - a minor third with a major third on top
Augmented - two major thirds
Diminished - two minor thirds

Assigning a triad quality to the seven scale degrees in C major
C - Major
D - Minor
E - Minor
F - Major
G - Major
A - Minor
B - Diminished

As you can see, the C, F, and G chords are all major. This makes them more prominent in the key of C Major. The C chord will almost always be preceded by an F or G chord at the end of a chord progression.

Applying this Knowledge to Playing Lead Sheets

Lead sheets give you 4 vital bits of information:
1. The root of the chord
2. The quality of the chord
3. The duration of the chord
4. The bass line

1. The letter named in the music will be the root of the chord. This "root" is the most basic information that the lead sheet gives you.
2. The quality of the chord is denoted either by capitalization meaning a major chord, not capitalized meaning a minor chord, a degree symbol means dimished, while a plus sign means augmented.
3. The duration of the chord is notated by the time signature and the note value of the chord. In 4/4 time, a quarter note gets one beat, a half note gets two, a dotted half note gets 3, and a whole note gets 4 beats.
4. Some times a bass line will be given when the root of the chord is followed by another letter note with a slash. for example C/E
you should play a c major chord with an e in the bass.

About the Author

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Should I get a Bass Guitar or Piano?

I play guitar and think I'm pretty good. I know the basics of bass and piano and one day want to be able to play all 3 like John Lennon, one of my musical idols. The Guitar Center in my town is having a sale and I want to get 1 but only one for now.

I think having a keyboard and your guitar will help with understanding music better.

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Piano Note Reading for Beginners

Reading piano notes is far easier than many beginning pianists think it is. Ultimately, piano note reading is simply a matter of memorization and repetition. In other words, once you learn the basics, all you have to do is put them into practice, and to do so as many times as it takes to completely internalize your note reading skills.

No doubt, you've seen what's known as the staff -- the system of five lines and four spaces upon which musical notes are organized. In music notation, at the far left of a staff you will always see a clef, which is basically a symbol that indicates how the notes on the staff should be read.

There are many different types of clefs, but fortunately for beginning pianists, the vast majority of piano music deals only with two clefs, the treble clef and the bass clef. The treble clef is usually used to notate the first few octaves to the right of Middle C, while the bass clef is usually used to notate the few octaves to the left of Middle C.

In all staffs, no matter what the clef is, successive lines and spaces represent ascending notes of the scale. For example, in the treble clef, the lowest line represents E. Thus, the space just above the lowest line represents F, the line just above that represents G, the space above that is A, and so on.

In the treble clef, which looks sort of like a backwards "S" with a few extra curly-cues thrown in, and centered on the second line up, the notes are as follows: The five lines, from bottom to top, stand for E G B D and F, while the four spaces stand for F A C and E. All beginning pianists must memorize these very early in the learning process. FACE is an easy acronym to remember, while EGBDF lends itself to a variety of mnemonic phrases, which you can make up yourself. For example, when I took my lessons, I was forced to memorize, "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge."

Often, when reading music, you will see additional "lines" added above or below the staff. These are merely extensions of the staff, and follow the same succession as notes within the staff. For example, the invisible line one space below the treble clef staff -- a note that you will see very, very often -- stands for middle C as it is one space and one line below the E represented by the first line.

The bass clef, which looks like a backwards "C" with two dots around the second line from the top, has this configuration: The five lines stand for G B D F and A, while the four spaces stand for A C E and G. Again, there are many mnemonic devices to remember these, but it's always best to make up your own.

With many piano songs, especially those for beginners, the left hand plays the notes in the bass clef, while the right hand plays the notes in the treble clef. The two areas meet up at middle C, which is two notes below the lowest line in the treble clef staff, and two notes above the highest line in the bass clef staff.

Beyond this basic memorization of notes represented by lines and spaces, piano note reading also involves some knowledge of what is meant by various symbols. Most commonly you will see the symbols for sharp and flat. The symbol for sharp, which closely resembles the number symbol (#), indicates that the note which it accompanies should be raised one half step. Meanwhile, the flat symbol looks like a lower case "b," and indicates that the accompanying note should be played one half step lower. Also, once you start to learn more keys and scales, you will need to know the natural symbol, which cancels a sharp or flat is dictated by the key. Also, it's important to remember that when you see a sharp, flat, or natural symbol, that symbol remains in effect throughout the measure.

From this point on, things become more complicated. But don't sweat it. Learning how to read piano notes is a baby-step process. Try not to learn everything at once. Instead, focus on one thing at a time, and practice until it comes as easily as breathing. As always, this is the key to learning piano.

About the Author

Duane Shinn is the author of the popular DVD home study course on playing piano titled
"Crash Course In Exciting Piano Playing!"

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