Chord memorization is the more tedious and boring way of learning the various chords on piano. If you just focus on learning the structure of a chord, or in simpler terms, just how it's made up, then it will be easier for you to learn all of the major and minor chords. Let's cut straight to it then.


What are the Basic Chords?
In music there are basically four commonly used chords. These are:
Major
Minor
Augmented
Diminished

What is a semitone?
A semitone is basically a half step i.e Eb to E, Ab to A etc... It is important to know what a semitone is, because we will be using the semitone sort of as a measuring stick.

How do I build a major chord?
For simplicity's sake we'll use the C chord to learn how to build a major chord. Now lets take a look at it
The rule for forming a major chord is simple. Just proceed 4 semitones from the root note to find the second note of the chord. Then move 3 semitones from the second note to find the third note. Now you can apply this to any note and you can find the major chord for that note.

How to play a Minor Chord
For a minor chord the 4 semitone- 3 semitone is simple reversed. From the root note move 3 semitones up for the second note of the chord, and then 4 semitones from there to find the third note of the chord.

What is a Diminished Chord?
For some musicians diminished chords are their bread and butter, and for others the sound is not so pleasing, it all depends on the person playing it and the context in which they play it. Now how do we determine the structure for a diminished chord? a diminished chord uses a 3 semitone-3 semitone rule. This simple means that you move 3 semitones to the right to get the second note and 3 semitones to establish the third note.

i.e. Cdim: C Eb F#
.......Fdim: F Ab B
and so on.

Augmented Chord
For an augmented chord simply move to the right 4 semitones for the second note and again move 4 semitones to the right for the third note.

And there you have it, not you can start applying these basic principles to find the chord structure for any chord in any key.

Good Luck.









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