Piano chords are the essential blocks that let Pianist to play along with the other tracks of the song. For an absolute beginner, playing Piano consists of two parts. They are backing when a singer is singing and the other one is the solo generally when a song starts or the musical parts when the singer is not singing in a song. This is just to get you started, but keep in mind that every rule is broken depending how an artist wants to compose or play the song.
In this blog we will cover the following:
- What is a Piano Chord?
- Major Chords
- Minor Chords
These chords are more than sufficient to start playing beginner level songs in any language.
What is a Piano Chord?
Technically a chord is a combination of two or more notes when they are played together. Some of them are simple and it can get complicated in advanced levels of playing (Eg: Jazz genre). However note that mastering few simple beginner level chords can get you start playing many songs.
Major Chords
Before playing a chord, we will have to understand how to construct a scale. There are many kinds of scale. Here we will learn about Major Scale. A major scale consist of 7 notes. These notes are formed in a certain formula and this formula is common for all the major scales. Given below is the formula to form a major scale.
W W H W W W
W stands for Whole note and H stands for Half note. So using this formula let us construct a C major scale:
1st Note – C (Always the scale we want to play)
W : 2nd Note – D (Next whole note after C)
W : 3rd Note – E (Next whole note to D)
H : 4th Note – F (Next whole note to E)
W : 5th note – G (Next whole note to F)
W : 6th note – A (Next whole note to G)
W : 7th note – B (Next whole note to A)
So applying the formula of WWHWW for C major scale, the notes we get are C D E F G A B, and notes keep repeating again and again. You can construct all the major scales in similar way.
Constructing a C major chord: The major scale is formed using 1st, 3rd and 5th note. So in C major scale is C, E and G. So if you play all these 3 notes together it is called a C Major Chord or C Chord. You can learn here how to play the C major scale in Piano. So applying that formula, given below are notes of all major chords
- C major (C) : C – E – G
- C# major (C#) : C# – E# – G#
- D major (D) : D – F# – A
- D# major (D#) : D# – G – A#
- E major (E) : E – G# – B
- F major (F) : F – A – C
- F# major (F#) : F# – A# – C#
- G major (G) : G – B – D
- G# major (G#) : Ab – C – D#
- A major (A) : A – C# – E
- A# major (A#) : A# – D – F
- B major (B) : B – D# – F#
Minor Chords
Now let us a construct minor scale. The formula for constructing a minor scale is given below:
W H W W H W
W stands for Whole note and H stands for Half note.
So applying this formula for C Minor note, we will get the following notes:
1st Note – C (Always the scale we want to play)
W : 2nd Note – D (Next whole note after C)
H : 3rd Note – D# (Next half note to D)
W : 4th Note – F (Next whole note to D#)
W : 5th note – G (Next whole note to F)
H : 6th note – G# (Next whole note to G)
W : 7th note – A# (Next whole note to A)
So applying the minor scale formula WHWWHW we get C D D# F G G# A#. You can construct all the minor scales in similar way.
Constructing C Minor chord : The C minor consists of 1st note, 3rd note & 5th note, which are C, D# and G. So if you play all these 3 notes together it is called as C Minor Chord or Cm chord. So applying that formula, given below are notes for other minor chords.
- C minor (Cm) : C – E – G#
- C# minor (C# m) : C# – E – G#
- D minor (Dm) : D – F – A
- D# minor (D#m) : D# – G – A#
- E minor (E) : E – G# – B
- F minor (Fm) : F – G# – C
- F# minor (F#m) : F# – A – C#
- G minor (Gm) : G – A# – D
- G# minor (G#m) : G# – B – D#
- A minor (Am) : A – C – E
- A#minor (A#m) : A# – C# – F
- B minor (Bm) : B – D – F#
These major and minor chords are sufficient for a beginner player to start playing many songs.
