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.

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.