There are SO MANY different types of chords that we can play on the piano, with each chord offering its own unique sound. So in the beginning, it can often be a little difficult to know how to learn chords on piano. Which chords should we start learning first? Which chords are the most widely used? And which chords help to bring which sounds?
For beginners - to help you understand how to learn chords on piano, it is normally best to start learning the very basic chords like major triads and minor triads. When these are combined together, they produce very beautiful sounds and then, we can start to add some basic colors to these chords in a variety of different ways (more on this in the next section).
For intermediates - you might like to add to your chords repertoire by learning some major chord extensions & minor chord extensions and then start mixing these together with some tension chords (like dominant chords or diminished chords) to create new & interesting sounds that are more harmonically rich & dynamic.
And of course, there are many other types of chords that you can choose to learn as well. Here on this page, we will be providing you a big picture overview about how you might like to learn chords for piano and then from here, you can click through to see more detailed information about how to actually learn & play these chords.
Major & Minor Chords
The most logical first step for those who want to learn chords for piano is to start with your basic types of major and minor chords. For major chords, this includes major triads (& inversions) but you can easily introduce some add2/add9 chords & sus2/sus4 chords for some extra color. For minor chords, we normally start out with playing minor triads & inversions.
On our major chords & minor chords pages, we share everything you need to know, including how to construct these basic chords and all the basic theory behind them. We also share information about the various chord extensions, for those who wish to explore these intermediate - advanced chords.
Slash chords can be used to create very beautiful sounds but of course, before we learn chords on piano, it is always best if we can understand the basic musical theory about them. On our slash chords page, we include everything you need to know about how to play slash chords, including how to construct them and when to use them.
When we play dominant chords by themselves, we might not immediately think that it sounds beautiful. But, when we play dominant chords with a nice chord voicingAND we play them in the right musical context, dominant chords have the potential to add a layer of sophistication, harmonic richness & complexity into our playing.
On our dominant chords page, we will be sharing everything you need to know about dominant chords, including how to construct them, the basic theory behind them, how & when to play them and how to resolve these chords. We also provide numerous examples that can help you to start introducing dominant chords into your playing in a simple & easy way.
Altered dominant chords are very useful when for helping us to create different degrees of tension or dissonance in our music. In this way, altered chords help us to create different dominant chord sounds so that we can increase our sound repertoire and keep things interesting for the listener.
On our altered chords page, we share the most popular types of alterations that are made to dominant chords and we outline the basic theory behind these alterations, so that can easily understand and start playing these. We also share examples of how to use each altered chord so that you can very easily start incorporating these into your music.
Diminished chords are useful for those who are playing any kind of jazz-based musical genre but they can be equally useful for those who are leaning classical music. The diminished piano chord offers a very unique sound and when it is used correctly, it can help us to produce very beautiful sound results.
On our diminished chords page, we will introduce you to the basic types of diminished chords and we will outline the basic theory behind them, including how to construct these piano chords. We will also show you how to use diminished chords so that you can start using these to help you create very advanced & professional sounding music.
Augmented chords are another very helpful piano chord to know. The augmented piano chords offer a very specific & unique sound and most commonly, they are used in pop music and/or jazz-based musical genres.
On our augmented chords page, we introduce augmented chords from a pop music perspective and then we cover augmented chords from a jazz-based perspective. We introduce all of the basic theory behind these piano chords and we share lots of examples about how you can start using augmented chords to start creating this unique sound for yourself.
A passing chord can be thought of a transition chord that helps us to move into another chord in a more interesting way. For example, if we had a simple C major to F major chord progression, we could use a passing chord (or passing chord sequence) to help us travel into the F major chord in a way that sounds very beautiful.
On our passing chords page, we will introduce you to the MANY different ways that you can start using passing chords in your music and on this page, you will notice that we are bringing together lots of different types of chords, to create passing chords, so that our music becomes both harmonically rich & melodically pleasing to the listener.
For most people, learning all of the different chord extensions on the piano can be a rather difficult task. Whilst it is great to know the basic theory for all of these chords extensions, there can be times when it is sometimes easier to learn these advanced chord extensions with a polychord approach.
For example, playing a B major triad over a C major triad is actually the same as playing a C major 7th #9 #11 chord. In this case, it is normally easier to remember the polychord method, as opposed to learning the theoretical construction of the chord. On our polychords page, we want to help give you some ideas about how to learn chord extensions more easily.