Basic Piano Chords

The chords every piano and keyboard player should know are the basic Major, minor, Augmented, and diminished chords, and seventh chords. These are the most common chords and are relatively easy to play.

These chords are shown with the root note C. Other root notes are possible by transposing these chords. For example, a C Major chord (C, E, G) can be transposed to D. This will result in a D Major chord (D, F-sharp, A).

These chords are constructed from musical intervals. Each chord has:

1. A Root note
2. A note a Major third (M3) or minor third (m3) above the Root
3. A note a Perfect fifth (P5), Augmented fifth (A5), or diminished fifth above the Root

• And seventh chords also have a note a Major seventh (M7), minor seventh (m7), or diminished seventh (d7) above the Root.

The basic chords:

• Major - Root, M3, P5
• minor - Root, m3, P5
• Augmented (Aug) - Root, M3, A5
• diminished (dim) - Root, m3, d5

The seventh chords:

• 7 - Root, M3, P5, m7
• M7 - Root, M3, P5, M7
• m7 - Root, m3, P5, m7
• dim7 - Root, m3, d5, d7
• half dim7 - Root, m3, d5, m7

Example:

If we choose a Major chord for example we begin by picking a Root note. We could pick any of the 12 notes but in this case we will choose G. The next note we need is a Major third (M3) above the Root, which in this case would be the note B. The final note we need is a Perfect fifth above the root, which in this case would be the note D. Now we have all three notes of our Major chord: G, B, and D.

For reference here is a diagram of the keyboard with the note names on it:

Now that you know these chords you might want to learn about chord inversion, chord symbols, or extended chords.

Basic Guitar Chords

The easiest chords to play on the guitar are the Major, Minor and Seventh chords in open voicings. These chords use open strings and no more than three fingers, and they don't go into the higher positions of the guitar. The ease in playing these chords makes them the best for beginners to learn. This article will show them in two different ways: fretboard diagrams, and tablature (Tab).

A quick review of chord symbols: Uppercase letters indicate Major chords, a chord with a lowercase "m" indicates a minor chord, and a "7" indicates that the chord is a seventh chord.

Fretboard Diagrams

• Open circles indicate open strings.
• Dark, filled in circles indicate the spots on the frets where you put your fingers.
• The "X" symbol tells you to not play a string.
  

Tablature

A Video About Chords

(You may want to review intervals, chord symbols and chord roots before reading this page or watching the video.)

The video demonstrates some of the most common chords: Major, minor, Augmented, diminished, and various seventh chords.

Major -------- root - M3 - P5
minor -------- root - m3 - P5
diminished - root - m3 - d5
Augmented - root - M3 - A5
Maj7 ---------- root - M3 - P5 - M7
7 ---------------- root - M3 - p5 - m7
min7 ---------- root - m3 - P5 - m7
dim7 ---------- root - m3 - d5 - d7

Learn more about chords.

Learn about extended chords.

Learn about chord inversion.

Chords

Chords are notes played simultaneously. The most commonly used chords are constructed from stacked thirds. Chords can also be constructed from seconds, fourths or fifths but these types of chords are less common.

The most basic type of chord is a triad, a chord made of three notes built from stacked thirds. Each triad contains a chord root, and notes a third and a fifth above the root.

Basic chords:

Seventh Chords:

If we stack another third onto any of the basic chords, adding an interval of a seventh above the root, we now have Seventh Chords.

From left to right the names of these chords are: Major-Major seventh, Major-minor seventh, minor-minor seventh, minor-Major seventh.
These chords names are commonly abbreviated, such as M7 for Major-Major Seventh and 7 for Major-minor seventh.

Other Seventh Chords:

From left to right the names of these chords are: Augmented-Major seventh, Augmented-minor seventh, Half diminished, diminished seventh.

Learn about Extended Chords
Learn about Chord Symbols