If you’re a beginner piano player, you might feel overwhelmed with the sheer number of piano chords out there. But fear not! With this ultimate guide, you’ll be able to learn EVERY piano chord you need to know.
In this YouTube video, Kaitlyn covers all the basic chords, including major, minor, diminished, and different types of seventh chords. She also provides an easy strategy using half-steps that will help you find chords quickly and effortlessly.
By the end of the video, you’ll have the confidence to play any chord you come across. And with your new knowledge of music theory, you’ll be able to apply these chords to your favorite songs.
In conclusion, if you’re a beginner piano player looking to master every piano chord, this video is a must-watch. With its comprehensive coverage of basic chords, clear explanations, and easy-to-follow tutorial, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a piano pro. So grab your keyboard and start learning today!
VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION:
In this video, we are going to go over every single piano chord that you need to know in order to play your favorite songs. If you learn all of these types of chords: major, minor, diminished, seventh, and so on, you’re going to be able to play your favorite songs in a snap. We’re going to go over some easy formulas that you can do easily, so that you can find any chords you want and play any song you want.
Before we get started, be sure to hit the bell and subscribe if you’d like more videos about how to go from zero to playing your favorite songs on the piano in months, not years. Why is this video so helpful? Honestly, I think this video is going to be gold because it’s truly a lot of what you need to know in order to play your favorite songs. Nowadays, you can go online and search any song and find the chord progression and play the song quickly. So if you know all of these chords and how to find their notes easily, you’re going to be able to play your favorite songs quite quickly. I’m also going to share exactly how these chords are written in music, so that you are never confused. So let’s get started. What is a chord? A chord is when we are playing multiple notes at the same time like this.
You’ve probably heard of different types of chords: major, minor, seventh, and so on. We’re going to start with major and minor and go all the way to learning several different types of seventh chords. Like I said, this is truly the ultimate guide for beginners. All right. First, major and minor chords. Major chords are known to sound happy like this, and minor chords are known to sound more sad or dreary like this. If we learn what a half step is, we can find any of these chords really easily. So pay close attention. A half step is when we play one note to the very next note. So this is a half step. This is a half step E to F. This is a half step, half step, half step. So it’s one note to the very next note. Every single note on the piano has chords that go with it. So for example, C has C major, C minor, diminished, seventh.
There’s lots of different chords that start on the note C. And you could do that again with other chords like D, there’s D major, there’s D minor, and so on. To find the notes of these chords, I’m going to give you some very easy formulas that you can use and find them so easily. A major chord is always going to be the formula four plus three. And by that, I mean four half steps plus three half steps. So let’s try to build the C major chord, and I’ll show you exactly what I’m talking about. What I say to my students is to say the first note, C, and then we’re going to count four. One, two, three, four. So the second note in the C major chord is going to be E, and then we’re going to count three. One, two, three. So the third note in the C major chord is G. So we have C, E, G, that is C major. Let’s try another chord just for an example.
Let’s do A major. So find an A. We’re going to count four. One, two, three, four. So the next note is C sharp, and then we’re going to count three. One, two, three. So the next note is E. So the notes of the A major chord are A, C sharp, E. The minor chord formula is going to be the exact opposite of the major chord formula, and that is three plus four half steps. So let’s try to build a minor chord now. Let’s do D minor. We’re going to start on D, say the note D, count three. One, two, three. So the next note is F, then count four. One, two, three, four. That means the notes of the D minor chord are D, F, A. Let’s try one more. How about G minor? Find G, say the note G, we’re going to count three. One, two, three. And then one, two, three, four. That means the notes of the G minor chord are G, B flat, D.
Now, how are these chords written in music? So if you look at some sheet music like this, you’ll see different chord symbols. For major chords, we typically have just a capital letter. So for example, if the chord is C major, it’s just going to be a capital C. If the chord is a major, it’s just going to be a capital A. For minor chords, it’s usually going to be the letter capitalized with a lowercase M next to it. Sometimes you might see it just as a lowercase of the letter. So for example, you might see a lowercase A and that’s it, or you might see a lowercase C and that’s it. But most of the time in popular music, you’re going to see that uppercase letter with the lowercase M. Now, there’s actually tons of ways that musicians write chords, but the ones I’m giving you in this video are the ones that you’re going to see 99% of the time. So basically, major has an uppercase letter, minor has an uppercase letter with a lowercase M.
All right. Our next set of chords are going to be diminished chords. Can you believe it? Diminished chords actually sound even darker and sadder than minor chords. It’s basically like a super minor chord. So this is what diminished sounds like. To give you some context, here’s major, here’s minor, here’s diminished. So you can hear that super minor dark sound. The formula for diminished chords are going to be three plus three half steps. So let’s show you an example of that. Let’s find C diminished. I’m going to say C, one, two, three, and then one, two, three. So C diminished is always going to be C, E flat, G flat. Another example could be A diminished. We’re going to say A, we’re going to count to three. One, two, three. And then we’re going to count to three again. One, two, three. So we’ve got A, C, E flat. Diminished chords are written with an uppercase letter with the letters D-I-M next to it.
Before we get to our next chord, let me know in the comments which song are you excited to learn once you really have a good understanding of these chords down. Let me know. All right. Our next set of chords are suspended chords. These chords are so beautiful. I love suspended chords. You hear them in songs like Free Fallin’ by Tom Petty. Here’s an example. When I’m playing Free Fallin’, the first chord is F major, then we have B flat suspended too, back to F Major, then this is C suspended. And it just keeps switching. That’s why this song is so good. Suspended chords are basically chords that create a little bit more suspense. There’s a little bit more edge, more of a pool to it. So hence the name, they are suspended chords or maybe they cause a little bit more suspense. Now, there are two types of suspended chords: there’s suspended two and suspended four, and there’s two different formulas.
Here’s the formula. For sus2, it’s going to be two plus five. So let’s try that. Let’s start with a C, and then I’m going to count two. One, two. And then I’m going to count five. One, two, three, four, five. So here is Csus2. For sus4, the formula is five plus two. So let’s go back to our C, and then I’m going to count five. One, two, three, four, five. And then two. One, two. So Csus4 is C, F, G. Suspended chords are written with a capital letter and sus2 or a capital letter and sus4. Our next set of chords are seventh chords. Now, there’s actually a lot of different types of seventh chords. The ones I’m going to go over today are the most commonly used. Seventh chords can sound a little bit jazzy like this. I love seventh chords. Today, we’re going to go over three of them: dominant seventh, major seventh, and minor seventh.
Dominant seventh is the most commonly used. The formula is four plus three plus three. So let’s find C dominant seventh together. We’re going to say C, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, one, two, three. So it’s a four note chord: C, E, G, B flat. Do you hear that jazzy sound? And since they are the most commonly used, they’re written like this: capital letter with just a seven. The next seventh chord is a major seventh chord. The formula is four plus three plus four. So let’s try it for the note C. Say C, then we’re going to count four. One, two, three, four, one, two, three, one, two, three, four. So this is a major seventh, C major seventh. A major seventh chord is going to be written like this: the capital letter with maj, M-A-J, seven.
All right. Our last chord is going to be the minor seventh chord. The formula is three plus four plus three. So let’s start on C again. Say C, one, two, three, one, two, three, four, one, two, three. C, E flat, G, B flat. This is C minor seven. And a C minor seventh chord is going to be written like this: capital letter C, lowercase M, and a seven. Now that you’ve learned the main piano chords in music, what song are you wanting to learn first? Let me know in the comments. Also, to get a good start on playing songs with chords, I highly recommend watching this video next. Like if this video helped you. And be sure to subscribe if you’d like to watch more videos about how to go from zero to playing your favorite songs on the piano in months, not years. And I will see you next time.
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