Posts Tagged ‘how to learn piano chords’
How to learn piano chords by ear – by Marty Alan McGill
You don’t have to read music to play music! Think about this … someone, somewhere made music without a written note. The writing came afterward, as a way to share, and/or remember the music. I started playing guitar 40 years ago, I just plucked away at it until I started making music. I have never learned to read musical notes, and I doubt I ever will. I have recently(4 years ago)taken up the piano, and I want to share my method with anyone who wants to have fun on the piano.
There are 88 keys on a piano, but only 12 notes. That’s right, 12 notes that repeat over and over in sequence. The first note is a white key, it is an A-note, the next white key is a B-note. And after B comes C, still on white notes, D,E,F,G. Then they repeat, A through G, and again and again. You’re probably thinking that’s only 7 notes … the other 5 are the black keys. They are the sharps and flats, if you play the black note to the right of a G note it will be G-sharp, or if you are playing from the A note, the same G-sharp would be called A-flat. This can be confusing, but for this lesson it is unimportant.
The Home Key on a piano is the middle C. The C note is the white note to the left of the two black notes. If you are confused about this, start at first note and do your ABC’s on the white notes, and you will figure it out. The middle C is the C note closest to the middle of the piano … that’s where we will make our first chord. Put your thumb on the middle C, count that as number 1. Count the keys to the right, white and black up to 5, that is second note in the C chord, if you’ve done it right you should be on E note. Continue counting white and black notes to 8, that is the final note in the C chord, a G note. If you play all three together it should make a beautiful sound, assuming you got it right and piano is in tune.
How to learn piano chords by ear – by Toya
Learning piano chords by ear is a bit like listening to a song on a radio station and learning the harmonies in the chorus. Chords follow different structures, for example you have the major and minor chords then the 7th chords and different classical and jazz chords. Once you know the basic chords you can begin to learn them easily. For example a standard chord is made up of 3 different notes. These will be the first, third and fifth notes on a piano scale from middle c to the next c left and right of the keys. And for example different chords have different notes. C is c,e,g – D is d, f sharp, a and so on. An easy way to learn the chords is to learn the sound of each note on a piano scale from middle c, one octave right and left to begin with. Then you could learn some intervals because chords are all about intervals. So you could learn a 2 step interval or a fifth. These just mean different notes. For example, C D, E, F, G, A, B, C and then the black notes, will be sharp if they are to the right of the note or flat if they are to the left. Going from a white note to a black note is a half step and going from a white note to a white note is 1 step. A major or minor standard chord uses the first, third and fifth notes and uses some sharps or flats as well. Once you’re familiar with the notes and sounds of chords learning chords by ear becomes quite easy. You’ll be able to hear what major and minor chords sound like and also be able to tell the intervals between the notes. In fact there are some free online services which help you practice and learn to hear different piano chords and intervals by ear and I recommend doing a search for these as they are very easy to use. You can test yourself and get scores starting from beginner level to advanced. Or if you have your own piano or keyboard you can practice playing the chords, notes and intervals and then remember what they sound like.
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How to learn piano chords by ear