Fast Piano Lessons Blog

Now that you’ve learned all about half steps and whole steps, you are ready to learn the formula for building the 2 most common chords, Major triads and Minor triads. All triad means is a group of 3 notes… As far as what major means, think of it as a chord quality. Major means happy. A minor should be thought of as a sad sound.

Here are the key points in this video:

There are 12 major chords and 12 minor chords, 24 total.
They all look different, white keys, black keys, etc. so don’t learn them based on the color patterns.

SHORTCUT: To find each chord, count up the half steps:
Major Chords = 4half steps + 3half steps
Minor Chords = 3half steps + 4half steps

It’s easier to remember all the major chords by counting up 4 half steps for the distance between the first 2 notes. Then three half steps for the distance between the second two notes. This works for every major chord. Minor chords are the same way, but you have to think 3 half steps and then 4 half steps.

This is the first piano lesson in a 3 part series with examples for how to play a ballad similar to the style that Elton John uses on songs like “Your Song” or “Tiny Dancer”. In this lesson we start of with some very simple patterns for the C major and F major chords. The biggest piece of advice I can give is to be comfortable with your inversions of chords and arpeggios. Don’t practice for perfection here.

Use these patterns as guidelines, making sure to change a few of the notes here and there each time you play them.

OUTLINE:

:10 - Example #1: The Easy Version: Rolling the chord Up

:25 - Example #2: Rolling the chord up & down.

:37 - Experiment with different rhythms and patterns for endless possibilities. Its up to you to be creative!

1:03 - Explanation of Chord Tones: Chord tones are the notes in the chord. Cmajor is made up of the chord tones “C E G”. Non-chord tones are all the other notes not in the chord (D, F, A, B,).

Practice Tip: Using Chord Tones and Non-Chord Tones

Use only the chord tones at first and then try to add non-chord tones as you get more comfortable with how they sound. Non-chord tones don’t always sound good with a chord so use caution. For example if you play the note F in your right hand, with the chord C major in your left hand, the E&F notes will clash. This clashing doesn’t sound good if you hold on the F for a long time. If you play the F note only for a short duration as just a passing note, then the clashing will not be that noticeable.

The fingering in the Right Hand for the C major scale is: 1231234.
(ON BOTH HANDS, Your thumbs are finger 1, index = finger 2, middle = finger 3
and pinkies = finger 5).

This is probably one of the first things you should learn on the piano. Not because it sounds good or is showy, but this exercise can teach you the basic method of moving your fingers around on the piano. Crossing under with your thumb is the smooth and fast way to span large distances on the piano.

While you’re playing, make sure that your fingers are relaxed and not lifting up from the keys. If you’re playing a note with your index finger, your pinky should still be touching the keys.
Practicing scales not only helps give you more control over your fingers, it helps you understand harmony and improvising better.

On the left hand the fingering is 54321321

With just 10 minutes a day on the Chord Master 5000, you can be on your way to the perfect chord shapes you’ve always desired… JUST KIDDING! It almost sounds like an ad for Bow-flex! If there were one exercise that I would do for fun and get good at my chords at the same time, I would play arpeggios.

The reason they are so helpful is because you practice finding the chord 8 times in each arpeggio in multiple different situations. AND THEY SOUND COOL! In the video below I walk you through how I play them:

I will play four octaves of the same chord. Lets use C for example:

1. I’ll start with two C major chords in each hand, C E G.
2. Then roll them from bottom to top, pinky to thumb in each hand (See video).
3. Left hand finishes then switched to right hand rolling from thumb to pinky.
4. While the right hand is rolling the chord, the left hand will start moving to the next highest C chord, crossing OVER THE TOP of the right hand.
5. Left hand start rolling the chord, while the right hand begins crossing UNDER the left. It moves to the next highest C chord.
6. Left hand then hits a single C note on the top when the right hand is finished and you play the opposite direction (from right to left).

NOTE: When you’re playing from right to left, this is the HARDEST part. You still play the C chord, but you’re starting with the top note G first, then E, then C. So you need to look for the G notes to correctly place the chord.

With my private lesson students that I teach in person, I ask them to play their 12 major chords and 12 minor chords in 30 seconds each and this is the exercise that helps them get up to speed! Some of them can even play 12 chords in 10 seconds!

Here is a country piano lick that would work for any part of werewolves of london or sweet home alabama. I like to use it in Jazz songs as well. For now, try and use it on ANY SONG that you’re playing with a major triad! In the video, In the video I show you how to play it on D major, C major and G major, but it will work on any major triad! Challenge yourself by trying to figure out the same notes on an F and A chord!

The pattern for this lick is: FLAT3, 3 8. These numbers are relative to any major scale. For example, lets use the C major scale (C D E F G A B).
The 8 means you count up 8 notes in the C major scale. The 3 means go up three notes (to E), and the Flat3 means count up three notes in the C major scale (to E) but then lower or flat whatever that note is a half step (Eflat).

To take this to other keys, you really should know the major scale for the key you want to play it in so that you can use FLAT3, 3, 8 to find the notes.

IF you don’t know the major scale, the trick is to find the third of the chord or triad. Lets start off with a triad like C which has the notes C, E, G. The E is the major third because its three notes up the C major scale from C (3). Count down one half step from E the major third and that is your minor third (Flat3). And then to find 8 is easy, its just the root of the chord (C) but 8 notes up.

In this lesson we’ll continue covering patterns for swinging rock piano! These are bass line patterns for your left hand. They really help push the song along and give it energy. These are meant to be played fairly quickly. They can also be fairly redundant because most of the attention is going to be on your right hand. Your left hand just plays a supporting role to drive the music, while your right hand gets the spotlight.

I came up with these notes because they’re notes from the chord. If the chord was C, we could play each of the notes in the C chord, one at a time: C E G. If we do all three at the same time too low on the piano it sounds muddy and has no energy.

Even though some of these are simpler, when I’m trying play and sing at the same time, I’ll use these simple patterns the most! There is just TOO MUCH to focus on in piano to do it all well!

Click on any of the examples to make them bigger!

Example 1: The first bass line you should start with. It outlines the same notes that are in a C chord: C, E, G.

Example 2: has a new note at the end: “A” (C, E, G, A). Fingering: Place your left hand pinky on the C and the thumb on the A

Example 3: is a little different than ex. 2. The notes are C, E, G and A, G. The last two are 8th notes, going twice as fast!

This follows up the last lesson, “Blues Piano Lesson #1A: 12 bar Blues In C (reading notes)” That post also has sheet music for the first clip in the video, which you can download.

There are a few variations thrown in as well that will all work in a C blues. It sounds the best if you use lots of different variations for variety rather than playing the song the same way through the entire time.

It should take you 10-15 minutes if you are a beginner to learn the patterns in the video really well. The chords shapes and patterns are all the same for C, F and G. They are all white notes.
REALLY focus on making the transition to each chord smooth and be able to switch between the variations with ease! If you can do that at a fairly steady fast pace, then you know you’re ready to move on.

Try to use your pinky, middle and thumbs only on this song to play the chords and the bassline.

The notes in alphabetical order:

HERE IS THE SHORTCUT!!!

If you use these mnemonic devices or memorization tricks, your reading will become much quicker. You won’t have to be counting up all the time! This is also a good tool for helping kids remember the lines and spaces on the grand staff of the sheet music.

In the treble cleff (the top staff) use this (PDF - JPG Print Out):

“FACE is for the Space” (This one rhymes)

“Every Good Boy Does Fine is for the lines” (This one is rhyming as well)

or “Elephants Go Bouncing Down Freeways”

Rhyming will help you with the memorizing.

In the bass cleff (the bottom staff) use:

Spaces: “All Cows Eat Grass” or “All Cars Eat Gas”

Lines: “Good Burritos Don’t Fall Apart” or “Good Butterflies Don’t Fly Away”

These are the 12 most common chords use on piano. You’ll find them used over and over again in many published song books… so it makes sense to practice them! (I’ll post a better image as soon as I make one!) Piano and Guitar each have keys that are easier to play in than others because of the shapes of the chords and how they lay out over the keyboard or fretboard. Sharp keys like E, A and D are very popular on guitar, and keys with lots of white notes or low numbers of sharps and flats are easier on the piano.

There are 24 triads total to learn. 12 major triads and 12 minor triads.
Each one has a different look and shape (black white black etc) But they all are the same distance apart:
So to find each chord, just count up half steps:
Major Chords = 4half steps + 3half steps
Minor Chords = 3half steps + 4half steps

The 12 chords that have white keys as the roots are the ones you should learn first. This is because they happen more frequently than other chords in fake books.

The dots show you where to put your fingers.

I give my private students timed tests to see how quickly they can play these. The goal is all the major chords in 30 seconds.