How to Learn to Play Different Chords on the Piano Using Two Forms and Numbers 1 to 5

2025 Author: Samantha Chapman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2025-01-24 13:28

This article is based on learning two basic positions, which reproduce the same shape with the same fingers, but starting from different fundamental notes. This works for all piano chords, major, minor, seventh, major seventh and minor seventh, using 3 fingers and sometimes adding a fourth. Below you can find all the information you need. Have you thought until now that playing the main chords is too complicated and that too much information is required to be memorized? You will be happy to find that it is possible to simplify this learning process by using the shape of the hands and fingers. Learn to visualize the positions: this system will appear simple and logical to you.

Steps

Step 1. Visualize the position relative to the chord shape your fingers and hands take by thinking about:

• Three finger chords like a tripod.

  

• The four-finger chords like a fork. It's a nice simplification!

  

Step 2. Number the fingers and thumb of the left hand from 5 to 1, starting with the little finger (5) and working up to the thumb (1)

Step 3. Practice playing by mentally following the images of your hand, as if they were visual advertisements that, in the long run, will make you gain confidence in yourself

• When playing the chords, do not play all the notes together, but practice arpeggiating: this technique is also called the broken chord technique and consists of playing notes quickly one after the other. Each note is then played sequentially from lowest to highest, bending the hand slightly from left to right. Each sound is played individually, not as an overall chord.
• Try to learn scales, as the arpeggio is just like strumming a guitar, but using a piano. The word arpeggio derives from the technique used to play the harp..

Step 4. Learn to arpeggiate

Try to reproduce a sound well by pressing the keys in rapid succession, one after the other, separated by a fraction of a second, depending on the rhythm of each piece of music.

Method 1 of 2: Position to Play Major Chords with Three Fingers

Step 1. Remember that a chord typically consists of at least three notes / tones / pitches (let's call them notes, for simplicity) that are played together

If we are talking about only two notes that must be played in succession we can speak of an interval (as if to indicate a distance).

Step 2. Compare the agreements

Note that the chord of do has exactly the same form as those of the fa and sol. You can also place stickers on the keys, to better remember the positions. Indicating do as three divided notes on the score would not illustrate the concept with the same clarity.

Step 3. Notice how the simplest three-note chords are the major chords, ie C, F and G, which are made up of only white keys with a practically equal distance and shape

Step 4. Visualize the left hand shape for the C, F and G chords:

you will see how the position is practically identical. This shape (just like a formula) uses fingers 5, 3 and 1. The other 3-note major chords use the same fingering, but change the shape slightly due to the sharps and / or flats:

1. Find the root notes (C or F or G) e
2. pass the ivory keys by reaching the third note using the third finger e

3. press the fifth ivory note using the fifth finger (thumb).

   The formula for these three chords is simply to use the fingers of the left hand (numbered 5, 3 and 1) from left to right, starting with the basic root note that gives each chord its name

   

   Step 5. Note that the D chord has exactly the same shape as the A chord shown in the photo, using stickers on the keyboard starting from the left

   If the king were instead indicated as three lines on the score, it would not render the idea with as much clarity. Examine the shape that the hand takes to reproduce an A and a D and you will notice that it is almost the same as that used for C, F and G, only with the highest middle note (i.e. sharp which, like the flat, consists of a distance intermediate between the notes). Both require the middle finger to hit a black key: from left to right, on the left hand (5, 3 # and 1), where the # symbol means sharp - which is often represented by the black key to the right of the key. normal.

   

   Step 6. Remember the eventuality in which two ivory keys are close together (adjacent, without a black key in the middle)

   In this case the white key will be sharp or flat (i.e. half a step away from the previous note), but only in certain chords and scales.

   

   Step 7. Playing a flat note is similar to playing a sharp note, but a flat involves moving left (back) half a distance from the main note

   The flat is the adjacent note to the left of a main note, while the sharp is adjacent to the right of the same note: however, both are only half a tone apart.

   

   Step 8. Remember that the combination of three (or more) notes used to form a chord and which consists in playing these notes simultaneously, respecting the distances between the notes (i.e. the intervals) is based on a model (or formula) related to the circle of notes

   This model foresees that the fingers, i.e. the 1st, 2nd and 3rd fingers, must be positioned in a specific way to form a certain chord, which could also consist of an intermediate distance (i.e. slightly to the right or left in the keyboard.).

   

   Step 9. Play the same chord with the right hand assuming the same kind of shape, with the thumb and fingers numbered once again from left to right 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, but this time starting with the thumb (1) and going up to the little finger (5)

   Even if it looks the other way around, just ignore the inversion between thumb and fingers - you will notice the same tripod shape.

   

   Step 10. Practice fingering playing the invisible piano (on a table), moving your fingers thinking:

   "5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ~ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5" from LEFT to RIGHT (no keyboard needed for this type of training!): Left hand: "5, 4, 3, 2, 1 "Right hand:" 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 "Left hand:" 5, 3, 1 "Right hand" 1, 3, 5 ", and so on.

   

   Step 11. Obtain or draw (accurately) a partial or complete paper model of a keyboard, so that you can use it for training if you do not have a real keyboard

   Your fake keyboard may be the same size as a real one, but remember that some electronic keyboards are shorter than a piano (they have fewer octaves, i.e. fewer black and white keys).

   Method 2 of 2: Position to Play the Four-Finger Major Seventh Chords

   

   Step 1. Learn to use seventh chords, which are four-note chords

   The following fingering works for all the seventh, major and minor chords that can be played on the keyboard (where the fourth finger plays a musical seventh).

   For example: the G seventh chord is found by counting the G as the first position on the circle of notes, and then selecting the third, fifth and seventh position. The chord will be composed of sol, si, re and fa respectively: all these notes have an interval of one, that is, they skip a whole note

   Step 2. Examine the left hand fingering for this chord, namely 5-3-2-1 (skipping the left ring finger):

   Little finger - g, middle - yes, index - d, thumb - fa.

   

   Step 3. Examine the right hand

   You will notice the same fingering with the inverted fingers, that is 1-2-3-5 (skip the ring finger again): Thumb - G, index - yes, middle - D and little finger - fa.

   

   Advice

   • Think of your fingers as the numbers associated with them and try to memorize their position by remembering that of the numbers.
   • You can think of the numbering on the right hand: 1, 3, 5 as the same shape as the left hand, 5, 3 and 1 (obviously 1, 3 #, 5 corresponds to 5, 3 #, 1, but the shape always remains the same).