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knowing chords on the piano is the key
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to everything speed related knowing
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chords helps you read music faster it
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helps you learn difficult pieces faster
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and it also helps you memorize way
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faster are you noticing a theme here in
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today's tutorial I'm going to show you
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two things that you can do to learn
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every piano chord quickly make sure you
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stay tuned to the end of the video
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because it's going to be way easier for
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you to memorize all of the chords if you
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follow everything I tell you in today's
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tutorial so the first thing that you're
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going to do if you want to memorize
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every piano chord quickly is use Easy
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formulas to build each chord now I love
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using formulas to build chords because
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it works for anyone regardless of your
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level regardless of how much music
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theory knowledge you have these formulas
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can work in two different ways first of
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all you could look at like a lead sheet
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or something like that and you can see a
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chord symbol and using a formula you
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could build any of the chords that
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you're going to encounter when you see a
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chord symbol the formula can help you
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figure out how to build any chord you
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can figure out the exact notes that you
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need to play the symbol that you're
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seeing but it can also work in the
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opposite way where let's say you're
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encountering a piece of music and you
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have some notes and you're trying to
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figure out if those notes in the piece
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of music make a chord you could also
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Clump the notes together and use this
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formula to see which kind of cord it is
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in today's tutorial I'm going to give
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you the formulas to build major minor
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augmented diminished and seventh chords
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so by the time you're finished watching
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this video you're going to know how to
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build all of those kinds of cords very
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quickly and very easily now these
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formulas that I'm going to share with
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you this is one way that you can build
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chords but as I said I like this way
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because it's fast and anyone can do it
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but one thing that's important to note
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is that cords Exist by themselves out
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here on their own and this formula is
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going to help you figure out how to
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spell any chord but it's not connecting
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the knowledge of chords to other music
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theory Concepts and the other important
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thing to know is that chords also exist
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in relation to a key signature and in
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relation to each other and in order to
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understand chords on that level you need
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to study music theory a little bit so
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we're going to stay over here in this
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fast and easy way to build every single
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chord but I just like to point that out
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that if you're getting confused because
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you're seeing information about chords
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being presented in a different way
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that's because there are several
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different ways to think about chords
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we're going to focus on The Fast and
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Easy Way in order to use the formula
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you're going to need to know what a half
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step is so a half step is from one key
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to the very next key on the piano with
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no keys in between so this is a half
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step this is also a half step sometimes
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half steps are from Black Keys to white
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keys sometimes they are from white keys
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to Black Keys but also in the case of B
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to C or E to F they are white keys to
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white keys so in order to build a major
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chord we are going to pick a starting
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note and the formula for a major chord
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is very easy because we're going to go
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up four half
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steps and three more half steps now you
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can do this anywhere on the piano you
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pick your starting note and you count up
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1 2 3 four half steps and then 1 2 3
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half steps this is going to get you a
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root position major chord anywhere on
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the piano for a minor chord you're going
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to pick your starting note let's pick a
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different starting note we're going to
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start on B and we're going to do exactly
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the opposite we're going to go up 1 2
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three half steps 1 2 3 four half steps
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that's a minor chord so your starting
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note three half steps four half steps
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any minor chord now a diminished chord
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we're going to pick our starting note
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let's pick a different one just for fun
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and we're going to do three half steps 1
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2 3 plus three half steps 1 2 3 that's a
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diminished chord now a diminished chord
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is kind of like an extra minor chord
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because it's made up of the starting
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note plus three half steps plus three
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half steps an augmented chord is exactly
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the opposite of a diminished chord it's
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almost like a a doubly major chord so
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we're going to pick our starting note
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and we're going to go up 1 2 3 4 half
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steps plus 1 2 3 4 half steps that's
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going to get you any augmented chord now
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the cool thing about chords is that they
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are very unique in that let's say I
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build a C major chord c e and G if I see
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c e and G come up in a piece of music
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it's always a C major chord as long as
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it's c e and G it doesn't matter if the
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notes are out of order it doesn't matter
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if it's e g and C or g c and e it
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doesn't matter what order the notes are
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in it doesn't matter if let's say I have
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two G's and one C and one e or two C's
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and one G and one e all of those are
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iterations of the same chord A major
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chord so you can see how you can use
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these formulas to not only build the
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chords but also to work backwards where
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in a piece of music if you see a c and
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e you can put that into the position of
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a root position chord and say okay
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here's my starting Note 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 I
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went up four half steps and three half
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steps and that makes it a major chord so
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you can use it backwards to figure out
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what chord you're dealing with in a
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piece of music if it's not labeled okay
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let's go on to step chords so for a
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dominant seventh chord the way that
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we're going to think about it is we are
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going to start with a major chord okay a
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dominant seventh chord starts with a
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major chord so I built a G major chord
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and then I am going to add three half
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steps to the top 1 2
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3 that is a dominant seventh chord A
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major chord plus three half steps added
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on to the top for a minor 7th chord I'm
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going to start with a minor chord and
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I'm going to add 1 2 3 three half steps
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to the
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top for a major 7eventh chord I'm going
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to start with a major chord again just
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like our dominant 7th but I'm going to
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add 1 2 3 four half steps to the
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[Music]
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top for a fully diminished seventh chord
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I'm going to start with a diminished
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chord and I'm going to add 1 2 3 three
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half steps to the
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top for a half diminished chord I'm
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going to start with a diminished chord
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plus 1 2 3 4 half steps that gives me a
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half diminished
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chord once you get comfortable using the
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formulas to figure out any chord the
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second thing that you can do to memorize
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all of the piano chords quickly is to
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memorize for retention I don't want you
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to keep using that formula forever
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because as long as you're using the
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formula you're going to have to take
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those extra steps every time you see a
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chord to figure out what the chord is
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and this is great in the beginning when
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you're just starting to familiarize
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yourself with chords and when you want
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to be able to unlock any piano chord but
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eventually you're going to want to move
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Beyond using the formula every single
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time chords are patterns and they're one
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of the biggest building blocks of the
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musical language I kind of like to
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compare it to when you're learning how
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to read in the English language you have
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your letters that's kind of like your
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note names and then you have your
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intervals and that's kind of like your
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really simple words like and or the and
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then when we Branch out into chords
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we're getting into words that are a
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little bit more complex but that we
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should still be able to recognize by
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sight so words like he or she and you'll
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want to study and memorize the chords
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until you get it to the point that you
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can memorize them on site now often
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times when I tell this to people they
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get really overwhelmed and they think
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that it's going to take a really long
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time or that it's going to be very very
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C complicated but it's not as you're
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working through these formulas I want
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you to pick one chord at a time and
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memorize that chord think about it even
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if you were to pick one chord a week
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after an entire year you would memorize
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52 chords and when you start to memorize
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chords they jump out at you on the page
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in your pieces of music and so all of a
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sudden instead of thinking about
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individual notes when you're reading
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music you just start to see chord
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patterns and it becomes a lot easier to
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read music with speed to learn how to
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play difficult pieces with speed and
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also to memorize with speed so when you
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start to focus on memorizing a chord
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like I said you're going to pick one and
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I want you to work on memorizing not
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only the information in your brain but
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also how the chord feels and sounds on
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the piano so let's take for example an a
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major chord an a major chord is a c sh
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and E and so you can repeat that back to
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yourself over and over and over again
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until you remember a major a c sh e a
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major a c Shar e you can go look through
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a bunch of music books and look for all
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of the a major chords see if you can
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find all of the a major chords in a
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piece or in a book but then also look at
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the piano and start to actually play
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that chord on the piano you can memorize
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how it feels to play it in both hands a
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CP and E play them together play the
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notes separately mix up the notes you
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know let's find all the A's with some Cs
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and some e in the
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beginning some e in the middle
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[Music]
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it doesn't really matter how you play
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them the point is that you are
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reinforcing how an a major chord sounds
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how it feels when you play it and also
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what the notes are a little disclaimer
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here if you try to memorize all of the
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chords at once you will likely set
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yourself up to fail because it's going
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to be way too much to Remember at the
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same time but if you focus on one a time
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either one per day or one per week or a
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couple per week you will have success
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and your journey to being able to play
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fluidly and musically is going to be
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shortened you're essentially becoming
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way more fluent in the language of music
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when you start to commit these chords to
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memory but if you want to know more
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about patterns in music and how
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understanding and deciphering these
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patterns can help you learn better learn
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faster site read with a lot more freedom
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and speed and accuracy check out the
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link in the description I recently
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taught a free class on this very topic
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and in this free class I go even deeper
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into patterns in music and how they can
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help you specifically with site reading
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you can grab that free class in the
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description below now once you get
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started memorizing those chords if you
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want some practice techniques to help
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you play chords way cleaner and with way
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more clarity check out this video that I
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did that teaches you exactly how to
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practice chords so that they sound
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musical you can grab the link right here
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sh
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[Music]
