Basic Piano Chords

The chords every piano and keyboard player should know are the basic Major, minor, Augmented,
and diminished chords, and seventh chords. These are the most common chords and are relatively
easy to play.

These chords are shown with the root

note C. Other root notes are possible bytransposing these chords. For example, a C Major chord (C, E, G) can be
transposed to D. This will result in a D Major chord (D, F-sharp, A).

These chords are constructed from musical intervals. Each chord has:

1. A Root note
2. A note a Major third (M3) or minor third (m3) above the Root
3. A note a Perfect fifth (P5), Augmented fifth (A5), or diminished fifth above the Root

 And seventh chords also have a note a Major seventh (M7), minor seventh (m7), or
diminished seventh (d7) above the Root.

The basic chords:

 Major - Root, M3, P5

 minor - Root, m3, P5
 Augmented (Aug) - Root, M3, A5
 diminished (dim) - Root, m3, d5

The seventh chords:

 7 - Root, M3, P5, m7

 M7 - Root, M3, P5, M7
 m7 - Root, m3, P5, m7
 dim7 - Root, m3, d5, d7
 half dim7 - Root, m3, d5, m7

Example:

If we choose a Major chord for example we begin by picking a Root note. We could pick any of the 12
notes but in this case we will chooseG. The next note we need is a Major third (M3) above the Root,

http://musictheoryblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/basic-piano-chords.html
which in this case would be the note B. The final note we need is a Perfect fifth above the root, which
in this case would be the note D. Now we have all three notes of our Major chord: G, B, and D.

For reference here is a diagram of the keyboard with the note names on it:

http://musictheoryblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/basic-piano-chords.html
Chords are notes played simultaneously. The most commonly used chords are constructed from
stacked thirds. Chords can also be constructed from seconds, fourths or fifths but these types of
chords are less common.

Basic chords:

Seventh Chords:

If we stack another third onto any of the basic chords we now haveSeventh Chords.

From left to right the names of

these chords are: Major-Major seventh, Major-minor seventh, minor-minor seventh, minor-Major
seventh.

These chords names are commonly abbreviated, such as M7 for Major-Major Seventh and 7 for
Major-minor seventh.

From left to right the names of these chords are: Augmented-Major seventh, Augmented-minor
seventh, Half diminished, diminished seventh.

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Chord Roots and Chord Inversion
Chord Roots:

The Root of any chord will be the note which corresponds to the letter name of the chord. For
example, the Root of a DM7 chord is D.

Chord Inversion:

If the root of a chord is not in the bass (the lowest note in a chord voicing) then that chord is said to be
an Inverted Chord. For example, starting form lowest to highest, if you have the notes E, G and C you
have an inverted C Major chord. It is inverted because the C, the Root of the chord, is not in the bass.

Any chord with the notes C, E, and G is a C Major chord no matter which note is in the bass, because
they all contain the same notes.

Examples of Inverted Chords:

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