Q. Where do I begin? Majors? Is there a good free site which has pictures included?
Would it be good to learn scales before chords? Or after?
Thanks in advance
A. I was taught to play piano classically and I'd say if you want to be able to sightread and play classical pieces of music then there's no substitute for learning the scales. It was boring as anything but it'll stand you in good stead when playing piano generally because you'll already know the key signatures/fingering.
However, I know some other types of piano-playing particularly jazz and blues (and to some extent I guess rock) are built more around chords. This method is also supposed to be a fast-track method to learning to play? So if you're wanting to learn more for fun - to play around with songs or maybe write your own then maybe you don't need to know the more "correct" fingerings.
There's plenty of websites out there doing this kind of stuff but be warned a lot of them are trying to sell you something.
I've just had a quick look and I think this is my favourite because it shows you all the variations and how they should sound: http://www.8notes.com/piano_chord_chart/
If you prefer videos this is kind of basic but shows you exactly what you're doing and what fingering etc.
http://www.expertvillage.com/video-series/464_basic-piano-lessons-chords.htm
I think the normal order would be to learn them in the order of fewest sharps and flats so starting with C, G, D, A and F majors and A and D minors. (look at the ABRSM syllabus for the order they teach the scales: http://www.abrsm.org/resources/pianoComplete0608.pdf)
I think if it was me I'd learn both at the same time, so start with a basic scale like C major, and then learn the C major chord at the same time - maybe playing around with some of the variations a bit too.
I'm sure some other people will disagree though and if you're already familiar with music theory or play another instrument pretty well you can probably skip the scales. Or if you're not too serious about piano and doing it just for fun by all means learn the chords.
Need help with some piano chords?
Q. I've been trying to play all sorts of piano chords, to match up with the melody i'm playing, and i can't seem to find the right chords. For example if i play a E or a G#, how would i know what type of chord would go with that?
A. Write all twelve of your major chords out on a piece of paper.
Now you'll notice that each note appears in three chords. For example A is in the A chord, it's in the middle of the F chord and it's the last note in the D chord.
Now write out all twelve minor chords and you'll see that A is Am, F#m and Dm.
Now that you have all 24 M+m chords written out, if your melody contains E and G# (As in your example) Then you look for a chord that contains both those notes. In this case you would use E, or C#m The choice of which one is totally up to you, whichever one sounds best.
You can of course go into 7th chords and Major Sevenths and extend the list from above, but you'd still be working fromthe same rules. Fromthe 7 group (just write them all out again) you'll add the choice of E7 (not much difference from group one huh?) and from the Major Seventh group the AM7 and the AmM7.
Of course then theres the 9's, 11's and 13's, but the ones listed above are the real answer=choose between E Major and C#minor (Which by the way are the same chord: E6=E G# B C# and C#m7= C# E G# B = exactly the same notes.)
All the best
Cat
how to convert piano chords into minor?
Q. like I wanna play a song, and I wanna make the chords minor to make it sound darker, but how do I do it. Is there like a way to do such? Help would be great, thanks!
A. You might want to mean a minor progression chord. Yup, it is possible. Converting pieces from major progression(where your main chord is a major) to minor progression(where your main chord is a minor) is a little bit tiresome. But, I'll try to explain this as brief but precise and easy to understand as i could.
The result of converting the major progression depends on what minor scale you would like to use.
The most common scale is the Harmonic Minor on its descending order (I call it personally HMDO). That is, 1 2 â3 4 5 â6 â7 8. Why HMDO? It is because HMDO scales are very similar to Major scales(1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8). For example in A minor scale(on HMDO):A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A', just move the first two notes and you'll get the C Major scale!
Legend used: converted to: =>
1.) Ok. Start making a list of the chords that are used.
2.) Identify what is the main/root chord being used. Move or transpose that chord 3 halfsteps/frets(or 1 & 1/2 wholesteps) DOWN . Example: G => E, C => A, D => B, and etc.
3.) Minor that chord. Ex: E =>Em, A => Am, B => Bm, etc. This will later become you root chord.
4.) Look for the fifth chords(if available) from the list. 5th chords are found by moving 4 notes up from the root note of a major scale. For example, if you have a C major chord progression, the major scale therefore is on C scale. That is, C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C'. Moving 4 notes from the root note which is C, we get G. Another one is, if you have an F major chord progression, the major scale therefore is on F scale. That is, F-G-A-Bb-C-D-E-F'. Moving 4 notes from the root note which is F, we get C.
5.) OPTIONALLY, move or transpose that chord(i refer to the 5th chord) down 3 halfsteps/frets. For example: D => B, G =>E and etc. So why optionally? Doing this step will make your chord progression more darker and 'minorer' to listen. But, if this results to a terrible sound/output, leave this step. Sometimes, you can also play either the natural 5th chord or the transposed 5th chord on one song. There are song that really have this type of progression.
6.) Leave the other chords as is. Don't change anything on them but if you think that you must have to do something on those chords, just do it. There's no NOs in music. Your style, your music!
7.) That's all, You're now have the converted minor progression chord
Those are the basics of transposing major progressions to minor progressions. And lastly, Experiment!
That's all for not now. Hope i helped.
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Title : Learning Piano Chords?
Description : Q. Where do I begin? Majors? Is there a good free site which has pictures included? Would it be good to learn scales before chords? Or aft...