The piano is the most perfectly designed instrument for playing chords. The piano’s keys are designed that it perfectly fit the notes naturally. You don’t need to contort your finger to play a combination of notes as you plays other instruments like the guitar. This article give some tips about piano chords for beginners.

Actually, it is easy for beginner to play basic chords. He just needs to remember the structure of the chords and follow it to open the world of harmony. A beginning pianist is required to have some knowledge of the notes and this can be achieved by non-intense practice.

The piano is designed in a pattern of notes. The white keys are named from “a” to “g” repeatedly. The white key which is directly on the left side of the 2 black keys is called “c”, the white key on the eight side of this key is called “d”. You can guess the name of the rest white keys if you know these two’. The black notes are called sharps or flats. They are lowered or raised of the white ones. A half-step which is the musical interval between each black or white key in the combination with the whole-step creates harmony.

The basic everyone should know is the scale of each musical key which decides the used chords for the key. There are 7 scale degrees of each major key: do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti. Besides, there are seventh, triads, extended chords and added tone.


Triads are the most common in use. There are 4 types of triads.
Major – a major third with a minor third on top
Minor – a minor third with a major third on top
Augmented – two major thirds
Diminished – two minor thirds

Assigning a triad quality to the seven scale degrees in C major
C – Major
D – Minor
E – Minor
F – Major
G – Major
A – Minor
B – Diminished

There are 4 vital pieces of info in a lead sheet:

1. The root of the chord – the named letter in the music.
2. The quality of the chord – denoted either by capitalization meaning a major chord, not capitalized meaning a minor chord, a degree symbol means diminished, while a plus sign means augmented.
3. The duration of the chord – notated by the note value and the time signature.
4. The bass line