If you want to learn how to play the piano, you have basically two options to choose from. You could go to a classical piano teacher, learn to read sheet music, and music theory and then start playing the piano properly after years of practice. However, it might just be the case that you want to play the songs of your favorite pop-rock bands, the Beatles for example. Nowadays, you have the opportunity to learn to play the piano easily, without much music theory and most importantly, without having to learn how to read sheet music. You just need to learn how to play chords on your piano, and what is even better, when you get the hang of it you are basically able to construct your own piano chords after just a few days.

The Keyboard And The Basic Notes

So, the piano keyboard just in front of you might look really daunting, with all the white and black keys. However there is a really basic logic behind the notes that you will have to learn before starting to play piano chords. There are only 12 unique keys on the piano, on the white keys, you have the notes from C to B (C, D, E, F, G, A, B), if you look carefully, you can see, that a group of two black keys are followed by a group of three. Basically, you have C on the white key before the group of two black keys, your last note is B, on the white key, just after the group of three black keys. The five black keys are quite easy to memorize as they are based on the white keys surrounding them. You have sharp and flat notes, you can raise a note by half a note, let’s say C, and you’ll have C sharp on the black key just after C. There is also a flat operator, which will make your note go down half a note, so for example on the black key just before D, you have D flat. One more thing you must have noticed is that there are no black keys between B-C and E-F, that is because they are just half a note distance from each other, as opposed to the whole note distance between the other major notes.

Piano chords are several notes played at the same time, the most common and basic chords are the triads and the 7th chords. When you have a triad, you can construct a major or minor chord, for example a very common major chord is C-E-G or G-B-D. As a basic rule, you should memorize that major piano chords are constructed in between the first two notes, there is a distance of four half tones, followed by three half tones between the second and the third notes. In a minor chord, this is reversed, and you have three half tones followed by an interval of four half tones. Another quite popular piano chord is the seventh chord, in which you have four notes, and it consists of an interval of four half tones. This is followed by an interval of three half tones followed by an interval of three half tones. For example, E7 will be E-G sharp-B-D. Having these basic rules in your mind, you should be able to construct all the basic piano chords by yourself and play many of your favorite tunes in just a few weeks.