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What Are Piano Chords?
Shotgun
Coffee Break Piano 7: Shotgun (George Ezra)
Let’s Discover 2 Main Types of Piano Chords
The 7th in the Coffee Break series, you’ll be learning about Major and minor piano chords in just a coffee break 10 minutes via Shotgun!
1 Learn to Play the Melody with Just 4 Notes
2 Add a Left Hand with 4 Simple Chords, including Major and minor chords.
3 Train Your Ear and Aural.
4 Read Some Notes If You Like.
5 Piano Improvisation: Improvise using the 4 chords.
Have you ever wanted to become an expert at the piano? It might seem like a daunting task, but there’s no better place to start than by learning the basics of chords. With just a little practice, you’ll be playing beautiful music in no time!
Learn to Play the Melody with Just 4 notes
Before learning the chords for Shotgun, we need to learn the melody. It’s one of the easiest tunes on piano possible because it only uses 4 notes (RMRLDD or Ab, Bb, Ab, Eb and Gb, Gb) and repeats them over again. As usual, I start with the black notes as they are so easy to identify.
Understand Major and Minor Triads
A chord is 2 or more notes sounding at the same time. Typical piano chords are “triads” in that they use 3 notes simultaneously. The most basic type of piano chords are the major and minor triads.
On the video, I show you how to work out any major or minor triad. Start with a note (if it’s Gb Major, start with Gb) and count semitone steps to the right (zig-zagging between white and black notes that are adjacent to each other). For a Gb Major chord, count 4 steps to the right to find Bb, then another 3 semitone steps to find Db.
For a minor chord on piano, you need 3 steps and then 4. For this song we need Eb minor. Start with an Eb, count 3 semitone steps to the right and you have Gb, another 4 steps and add a Bb on top.
To play Shotgun you need to playing these chords on your piano:
Db Major Gb Major B Major Eb minor
Using Chord Progressions to Play Songs & Music Theory
Once you’ve mastered the basics of playing different chords, you can start to play more complex chord progressions. A chord progression is a series of chords played in a specific order to create musical sections for a song. Learning the most popular chord progressions can help you recreate classic songs quickly and easily.
The Shotgun chord progression, as we learned above, is:
Db Major Gb Major B Major Eb minor
Using solfège, we could sing So-Do-Fa-La while playing the melody. You could also sing the left hand notes, the “roots” of the chords, while playing the melody.
In traditional harmony we call this chord progression: V, I, IV, vi,
Gb Scale, first 6 notes: Gb Ab Bb Cb(B) Db Eb
Numbered notes: I ii iii IV V Vi
Cb and B are the same note, just different names for the same key.
You can see that Gb is I, B is IV, Eb is vi and Db is V. The chord progression would commonly start on Do or I and be known as I-IV-vi-V (Do-Fa-La-So) and is common to many other pop songs.
Train Your Ear and Aural
In this song we start by singing all of the notes (DRM, Low La). Next, we pick a pitch to “inner-hear” (hear in our heads) and sing the rest out loud. Following this, we inner hear 2 pitches, then 3, then the entire song. The aim is to hear the melody as clearly as possible in the mind.
Another great ear training technique is mentioned above: Sing So-Do-Fa-La while playing the melody. Sing the left hand letter names of notes, the “roots” of the chords, while playing the tune. This technique develops the ability to hear the bass and melody simultaneously (our ears tend to just listen to the tune when we first learn).
Reading Chords on Piano Scores & Lead Sheets
Lead sheets have the melody in treble clef with piano chord letters written above. Major chords just have the lowest note of the chord written eg Gb. Minor chords have a lower case “m” after them such as “Ebm” (“E flat minor”). You then play these chords on the piano using your left hand when you are a beginner. As you become more advanced, you can integrate notes into the right hand too.
In the final notation example below, the piano chords are written out in traditional notation. They are ‘stacked’ on top of each other, resembling a set of traffic lights! Play all 3 of these notes at the same time.
Use Chords in Your Own Piano Songs
Piano Compositions and Piano Improvisations are so much easier when you have learned to play piano chords.
After you understand the basics of chords, you can start experimenting and use them to create your own unique piano songs. Start by playing around with different combinations of chords and see where it leads you! You can also try going outside your comfort zone by creating a piano chord progression that goes against traditional expectations. This way, you can express yourself musically in different and exciting ways.
Remember, you don’t have to play all 3 notes of the chord simultaneously now. Think about a guitar: it strums down the strings playing each note of the chord separately. You can make whatever patterns you like with the chords and at any octave of the piano (higher/lower places but same notes). Be creative and imaginative. If your ear likes the sound of it, then your piano chords are probably very good!
Using Piano Chords In Many More Popular Songs
(in a Coffee Break)
Want to learn how to play chords on the piano easily, in a matter of minutes? The Coffee Break Piano tutorials are certainly for you! If you’d like even more detailed instruction, then explore The Maestro Online Piano Lessons Library of Courses.
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