Simple piano chords

Today we’ll talk about how to play chords on the piano and how to turn guitar chords into piano chords. However, you can play the same chords on a synthesizer or on any other instrument.

You’ve most likely seen song lyrics with guitar tablatures more than once – grids that show which strings to press on which fret to play this or that chord. Sometimes the letter designations of these chords themselves are located nearby – for example, Am or Em, etc. It is important to understand that these notations are universal, and guitar chords can be used as piano chords.

If you play keyboards, then you will often use a different recording format: not just text plus chords, but in addition to this, a line of music with a recording of the melody. Compare the two formats: the second looks more professional because it more accurately reflects the musical essence of the song:

That is, you will play or sing a melody and add chords to it, accompanying yourself in this way. We will only look at the simplest piano chords, but they will be enough to play a beautiful accompaniment to any song. These are only 4 types of chords – two types of triads (major and minor) and two types of seventh chords (small major and small minor).

Piano chord notation

Let me remind you that guitar chords, as well as piano chords, are indicated alphanumerically. Let me remind you that seven notes are indicated by the following letters of the Latin alphabet: . If you want details, there is a separate article “Letter designation of notes”.

To indicate chords, capitalized versions of these letters are used, plus numbers and additional endings. So, for example, a major triad is simply denoted by a capital letter, a minor triad is also denoted by a capital letter + a small “m”, to denote seventh chords, the number 7 is added to the triad. Sharps and flats are denoted by the same signs as in notes. Here are some examples of notation:

Piano Chord Chart – transcript

Now I offer you a musical decoding of chords for the piano – I will write everything in treble clef. If you play the melody of a song with one hand, then with the help of this hint you can adjust the accompaniment with the other – of course, you will need to play the chords an octave lower.

That’s all. Now you know how to play chords on the piano and how to play chords by letter on a synthesizer or any other instrument. Don’t forget to leave comments and click on the “Like” buttons! See you again!