A friend got a reaction from his father to my post on learning piano chords:
Thanks, but all that does is confuse me and I couldn’t play if I had to analyze it all that way! I know what I want to hear and I find the chord that I know will fit. 90% of them now come to me “automatically” and with a little work, I usually find the correct ones for the other 10%. I know when I’m hitting a correct chord and when the chord is wrong. I guess that’s what playing “by ear” means.
My friend’s dad has been playing jazz, so he’s doing pretty well with his own system.
I’ll admit my explanation was rather condensed. It really needs figures and some more explanation. I’ve found similar explanations in a couple of older piano books. The approach makes things so clear — I’m surprised it isn’t more widely known.
Learning chords this way is easier than learning the multiplication tables.
A realization ….
As I said, it is easiest to learn major and minor chords in groups:
- White keys (C, F, G)
- White keys with sharps (D, E, A)
- Black keys with naturals (D-flat, E-flat, A-flat)
- The two B’s (B and B-flat)
- Black keys (F-sharp)
I would also recommend using the same groups for learning the other chords (dominant 7, inversions, augmented, etc.). For example, white keys C, F and G all have the same hand position for their inversions.
Perhaps I’ll draw a chart to show how logical the grouping is.
Hi Bart, Do you happen to remember the names of any of those older piano books with the shape concept in it? Thanks alot
Thanks for the comment. It motivated me to put up a new post with a diagram of the chord shapes ( https://bartanderson.org/2013/10/31/shapes-of-major-chords-on-the-piano-diagram/ )
I mention a few books in that post. There were several more books that grouped chords in these pattersn, but I can’t remember them off-hand.
Awesome speedy reply. I will look into those books, I see they have the pattern concept. Please reply here if you happen to see an old book with the actual lines connecting notes as with your drawing (or suggesting them). Thanks alot Bart.