Find Piano Chords Using Tutorials
We say this all the time here on Pianu. People who are learning how to play the piano today are the luckiest generation ever to have approached the instrument. It is easier to find piano chords, and just about any other piece of information you need than it ever has been before.
Lets take a specific song to use as an example. Chasing Cars, by Snow Patrol. If you want to use the above method and learn how to play the chords to this song by using sheet music, it is easily available.
If sheet music looks like hieroglyphs to you, dont worry tutorials are here to help. A simple search for Piano Chords for Chasing Cars will bring you dozens of results, either on Google or YouTube. Weve picked out one of the best tutorials you can use on YouTube.
This one even shows the notation along with the piano roll and gives a perfect demonstration of what you should be playing. There are so many variations on YouTube. If you are an absolute beginner, you can even go for the tutorials specifically marked as easy which will show you one-handed playing to get you started.
Our personal favorite method, and the one that sets Pianu apart, is the interactive lesson, which you can view here. By plugging a USB-MIDI-compatible keyboard into your computer, you can rely on Pianu to tell you when you are playing notes correctly or making an error. The interactive tutorial can guide you every step of the way until you can play Chasing Cars perfectly.
Working Out Chords Yourself Is It Possible
We recently published a guide to playing piano by ear. It is perfectly possible to reach the stage where you can listen to songs and then work out the melody on the piano yourself. In fact, with certain songs, it is relatively straightforward.
It will take a long time to get to the point where you can hear a song for the first time and recognize notes, chords, and chord progressions, but some people have this ability, and for those who do want to learn to play by ear, it is a fairly crucial skill.
If you havent got to this stage yet, it is a case of trying to train your ear. The guide below can be very helpful.
Root notes can also be extremely important when it comes to working out the chords to songs yourself. As you will see from the video above, she starts by working out the root note and then tries to match up the chords. To do this, you also need a good knowledge of chords.
She uses the song Eleanor Rigby to work out the chords, but you can start with something more simple. Notice while watching the video that she also is not afraid to try and fail. If you want to work something out for yourself then you have to get used to the trial and error process.
How Do You Play A Major 7 Chord
To play a major 7 chord on the piano, do this:
- Use the major 7 chord spelling: 1, 3, 5, 7
- Choose the root note you want your chord to start from .
- Use the major scale of this root note. E.g. C major scale for Cmaj7 chord.
- Count up 3 notes from the root note.
- Count up 5 notes from the root note.
- Count up 7 notes from the root.
- Play the root, 3rd, 5th, & 7th all together.
- Use this fingering: 1, 2, 3, 5 from the thumb on right hand.
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The 10 Best Piano Songs To Play With Easy Chords
Want to play the best piano songs with chords? Youve come to the right place!
There are many famous songs that we want to play on the piano. There are many versions with arpeggios and chords and we never know which ones to choose.
Piano songs with chords have two advantages. First, they are easier to play than the versions with arpeggios, because they usually contain fewer notes and the chords are repeated often. Second, the chords are easy to sing over and are a perfect accompaniment to the voice.
In short, if you want to sing over your piano accompaniment, chords are the way to go.
To help you do this, we have listed in this article the top 10 piano tunes to play with chords. You will learn the history of the songs, but also all the notes to play for each chord in each track. For each chord you will find a textual explanation, a diagram showing the notes to play, and a tutorial video allowing you to play all the chords of the song.
Ready to play? Lets go!
Tips: you can find all these songs in the catalog of our application dedicated to simplified piano learning. You can learn them at your own pace by connecting your piano to your device. You can also find more tutorials like this in our articles about the easiest songs to play with letters and the best piano songs to learn with numbers.
Joris, the author of this article, recommends the following resource: Piano tutorials: learn the 10 easiest songs
Learn to play the best piano songs with chords
Pro Tip: Listen To Your Favorite Rock Songs
Chords are used in almost every song you hear. The opening chord of Let It Be by The Beatles is a C major chord. Listen to some of your favorite songs and see if you can hear the sound of major chords.
How do you play a major chord on the piano?
To play a major chord, begin by choosing a root note, which can be any of the keyboard notes From the root note, count up two whole steps. This note is the third, named for being the third note in the key beginning with the root note. From the third, count up one-and-a-half steps, or three half steps. This note is the fifth.
When you play these three keyboard notes together, you hear a major triad, which has a happy sound. Major keyboard chords are used in almost every rock and pop song.
Common major piano chords include:
What are intervals called in a major scale?
The intervals in a major chord are called a major third, the distance from the root note to the third, and a perfect fifth, the distance from the root to the fifth. We counted the steps from the root to the third and the third to the fifth. To find the interval of a perfect fifth above the root note, count three-and-a-half steps, or a total of seven half-steps.
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How Music Chords Are Built
- A chord consists of three or more notes played together.
- The notes of a chord in root position are all spaced an interval of a third apart.
- You actually “build” chords by stacking thirds on top of each other.
- Depending on if the thirds are major or minor and in what order they are stacked, you get different types of chords.
- The most basic piano chords are either three-note or four-note chords.
- Basic three-note chords are also called “Triads.”
What Are The Most Important Piano Chords For Songs
Not all songs use chords. All songs share a set of rules and have a key and time signature but chords dont have to be used some songs just have a simple bassline and melody.
That said, some of the most popular piano music chords for songs include the following:
- A major . A C# E
- A minor . A C E
- C major . C E G
- C minor . C Eb G
- D major . D F# A
- D minor . D F A
- E major . E G# B
- E minor . E G B
- F major . F A C
- F minor . F Ab C
- G major . G B D
- G minor . G Bb D
As youre learning how to master piano chords for songs, its a good idea to find a printable piano chords for songschart like this print it out and use it to practice your piano chords as often as possible.
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What Are Chord Spellings
Chord spellings are the note degrees that are used to make up a chord. Every major chord, is spelt with the same spelling. But chords with different qualities , will be made using a different, specific spelling for that chord.
You can find the note degrees by counting up the scale , in a sequence.
Here is a list of common chord spellings on piano:
- Major 6th: 1, 3, 5, 6
- Minor 6th: 1, b3, 5, 6
- 7 : 1, 3, 5, b7
- Minor 7: 1, b3, 5, b7
- Major 7: 1, 3, 5, 7
What Is A Minor Chord
A minor chord has a minor third interval on the bottom and a major third on the top. When you compare the structure of minor and major chords, you can see that they are both made up of two thirds stuck on top of each other. The only difference is that a minor chord has a minor third at the bottom whereas a major chord has a major third.
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How Do You Play An Augmented Chord
To play an augmented chord on the piano, do this:
- Use the augmented chord spelling 1, 3, #5.
- Choose the root note you want your chord to start from .
- Use the major scale of this root note. E.g. C major scale for C diminished chord.
- Count up 3 notes from the root note, then flatten it.
- Count up 5 notes from the root note, then flatten it.
- Play the root, flat 3rd & flat 5th all together.
- Use this fingering: 1, 3, 5 thumb, middle, pinky.
Aint No Mountain High Enough
This is an old classic that caters to adult pianists needing some true soul. The rhythms are really simple, and the notes in the melody line are easy to remember too.
The chords move at a nice slow pace, although there are some dotted rhythms there. Those syncopated rhythms are easy to line up though. I find the left hand to be a little complex because it drives so much of the song with its pulsing. There are some specific jazz runs in there, and its full of seventh chords.
The video below is a good demonstration of what I mean about that. Certainly, you could find some arrangements that are simpler than this video. However, if youre trying to achieve an authentic sound, I would try to mimic this version.
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Sharing Chord Edits With A Friend
After all your hard work, you may well want to spread the news! You can share your chord edits via Facebook, Twitter, Whats App, or Email by clicking on the sharing icons.
You can also just copy the URL from the address bar, and paste it into a message to send to someone else. Personal music files cannot be shared with other users, hence Chordify cannot be used to redistribute music other than through streaming services like YouTube and SoundCloud.
Two Weeks By Grizzly Bear
Though it was released in 2009, this song written by Brooklyn-based indie pop darlings Grizzly Bear boasts a sound and feel straight out 1960s pop music. The song talks about a lover trying to save their strained relationship. Singer Ed Drostes tenor crooning floats perfectly over simple staccato piano chords in a simple and effective display of contrasts. Two Weeks was one of indie rocks most popular piano songs when it was released nearly a decade ago, and its still widely loved and recognized today. We recommend practicing the chord progressions in this song slowly to the click of a metronome first before attempting to play to the track if youre new to the piano.
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Piano Chords Chart For Beginners
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Here’s a free printable piano chords chart for beginners! In this easy piano lesson, you’ll get tips on using chord charts for when you are playing.
You’ll also learn how chords are built and get tips on how to get started playing chord piano. Have fun!
Learn These Basic Piano Chords
After learning these easy piano chords you can move on to chords that are a little more advanced.
Go here for chords sorted by key.
Learn how to play all 12 major and minor chords as well as diminished, augmented and seventh chords. You will learn how to form basic piano chords and more advanced ones on our main piano chords page. Learn how to play piano chords with the Piano For All piano course.
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Basic Chords: Triads & Seventh’s
Chords with 3 notes are called triads. There are four types of triads:
- The Major Triad is made of a major third and, on top, a minor third this creates the specific sound of “major” a “happier,””lighter” sound. It is written for ex.: E .
- The Minor Triad is built with a minor third and, on top, a major third. This gives the sound of “minor” a more “sad,””darker” sound. It is written for ex.: Am .
- The Diminished Triad is made from only minor thirds. This gives the chord a sound like it really wants to go somewhere, to be resolved somehow. That is why it is often referred to as a Dominant 7th chord with no root. For example, it is written: D dim .
- The Augmented Triad is built from only major thirds it also has an “unresolved” sound.
If I Aint Got You Alicia Keys
A song that needs very little transcription is If I Aint Got You by Alicia Keys. It was produced in 2003 and has an interesting backstory. Its definitely something you can play for special occasions such as a wedding. You can find this and other wedding piano songs in this post.
This song is entirely piano-based, and the triplet riff is easy to remember. Because that riff is a sequence you can use the same finger pattern of pinky, index, and thumb and just move down by intervals of a second.
To accompany that introductory sequence are downward stepping notes in the left hand. When combined with the right hand, this creates a series of seventh chords in stepwise motion. The left-hand starts with C followed by B A G in the bass line. The hands take those same chords and move them back up in the reverse.
The song eventually settles in G minor and moves along pretty consistently. Start with a G major chord, followed by E minor, A minor, and D major. The transition at the end of the verse is a simple move of G A B and back down to A.
When the chorus enters, the same sequence and chord structure from the introduction returns. The song ends with a doubling of the chorus, and then a repeat of the introduction again.
This is a really fun song thats easy to learn. Not only is it easy to remember, but it also has some more advanced piano technique involved with the triplets int he right hand. Its a soulful song that everyone will enjoy!
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Four Note Chords: Sevenths
The 7th chord is a four-note chord. It has a root, a third, a fifth, and a seventh. Starting from the root , the third , the fifth , and the seventh .
This is a 7th chord in the “root” position:
- A regular 7th chord, also called a Dominant 7th chord , is made from a major chord plus a minor third on top. That would make the thirds stacked like this : major third,minor third, minor third.
- A Major 7th chord is a major chord with an added major third on top. The thirds are stacked like this: major, minor, major.
Tip: A chord book is a useful tool when you start learning about chords.
How To Use Piano Chord Charts In 6 Steps
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Common Piano Chords Chart
When it comes to playing the piano, pianists have thousands of chords to select from, with some chords being more popular than others. Check out some of the most common chords in the piano chord chart below, or keep reading to find out more about piano chords.
The most common piano chords include:
