How To Memorize Every Major & Minor Chord On Piano

Summary

This video focuses on learning major and minor chords on the piano, essential for all types of music. It teaches how to fluently recognize and play these chords by grouping them into manageable sets. The instructor emphasizes understanding the visual and tactile feel of the chords, reducing memorization by linking major chords with their minor counterparts. The video also provides practice tips, such as using metronomes and breaking notes up, along with various techniques like progressing in half steps or following the circle of fifths to master these foundational chords.

Takeaways

• 🎹 Major and minor chords are foundational for playing piano and are used in nearly every type of music.
• 🎯 It's crucial to become fluent in recognizing and playing these chords automatically, similar to how we recognize words when reading.
• 📚 There are 12 major chords and 12 minor chords, but learning the major ones first helps simplify the process.
• 🔢 Organizing the chords into four groups of three based on shape makes them easier to learn and practice.
• 🎼 Root position refers to the original position of the chord with each note in order starting from the root.
• 🎶 The first group consists of major chords that only use white notes: C major, F major, and G major.
• 🎹 The second group includes major chords that have a black note in the middle: D major, E major, and A major.
• 🖤 The third group consists of major chords that go black-white-black: D-flat major, E-flat major, and A-flat major.
• 🎵 You can transform a major chord into a minor chord by lowering the middle note (the third) by a half step.
• 💡 Practicing different groups, using metronomes, drum tracks, or mixing chords, helps you become faster and more accurate with these chord shapes.

Q & A

What are the most foundational chords to learn first on the piano?

The most foundational chords to learn first on the piano are major and minor chords. These are common and useful in virtually all types of music.

How can someone become fluent in recognizing and playing these foundational chords?

You should practice until you can find and recognize the chords from any note automatically without having to think about it. Think of them as one shape, similar to how we read whole words instead of focusing on individual letters.

How can learning major and minor chords be simplified?

You can simplify the process by first learning the 12 major chords and then learning how to change them into minor chords. This reduces the amount you need to memorize, as the minor chords are variations of the major chords.

What is the structure of major chords in root position?

In root position, a major chord has one of each note in order, starting from the root. The root is simply the note the chord is named after.

What is a useful method to organize and learn major chords?

You can organize major chords into four groups of three by their shapes and then learn one group at a time. This method allows you to work on manageable chunks.

What are the three major chords that only use white notes?

The three major chords that only use white notes are C major, F major, and G major.

How does changing a major chord to a minor chord work?

To change a major chord into a minor chord, you lower the middle note (the major third) by a half step to form a minor third, while the outside notes (the root and the fifth) remain the same.

What is the difference between a major and a minor chord in terms of intervals?

In a major chord, the interval between the root and the middle note (the major third) is four half steps. In a minor chord, the interval between the root and the middle note (the minor third) is three half steps.

What is the 'perfect fifth' in chord structures, and why is it useful?

The perfect fifth is the interval between the outside notes of a chord in root position, which is always three and a half whole steps away. It is useful because it provides a consistent framework for recognizing and playing both major and minor chords.

What are some practice methods to improve fluency with major and minor chords?

Some practice methods include moving through chords in groups, using a metronome or drum track, breaking the notes up, and practicing chord progressions in half steps, around the circle of fifths, or alternating between major and minor chords.

Outlines

00:00

🎹 Mastering Major and Minor Chords on Piano

The first paragraph introduces the foundational importance of major and minor chords in piano playing. It emphasizes how these chords are widely used in all kinds of music and highlights the goal of becoming fluent in recognizing and playing these chords from any note without hesitation. To simplify learning, it's suggested to focus on root position shapes and to organize the chords into manageable groups. The paragraph explains that by learning the 12 major chords and understanding how to convert them into minor chords, you can significantly reduce the amount of memorization needed. Grouping the chords by shape into four groups of three is also suggested as a learning method.

05:02

🎶 Visualizing and Practicing Perfect Fifths

This section discusses the concept of perfect fifths and how recognizing this interval is beneficial for playing both major and minor chords. It introduces the idea that perfect fifths, which span three and a half whole steps, often share the same visual pattern on the keyboard (same color notes) and are essential to developing a tactile and visual memory of chords. The discussion shifts to practicing the fifths in both white and black notes, noting exceptions with B and B flat. The paragraph explains how these fifths provide a solid framework for learning both major and minor chords.

10:03

🎼 Converting Major Chords into Minor Chords

This paragraph covers how to transform major chords into minor chords by lowering the middle note (major third) by a half step. It explains that this results in a minor third interval, while the outer notes remain the same. The explanation walks through specific examples of converting major chords into minor ones, focusing on groups of chords based on their shapes and patterns. There is also a brief mention of how black and white keys change during this transition, with some additional insight into how to handle the differences in shape and note spellings.

🖐 Tactile and Visual Practice Strategies

The paragraph offers practical advice for practicing the chords, including the suggestion to focus on one group at a time, gradually increasing speed, using metronomes, or adding rhythmic variations. It encourages breaking the chords down into smaller components and mixing groups for better mastery. A specific suggestion is to move through the chords in half steps or follow the circle of fifths, a method that helps learners familiarize themselves with the consistent spacing between chords. The goal is to get comfortable with finding and transitioning between chords more fluidly.

🔁 Exploring Alternative Practice Techniques

In this final section, various practice methods are recommended to ensure fluency with chords. One suggestion is to move through the circle of fifths, ensuring that every key is played. Another involves practicing both major and minor chords back to back (e.g., C major followed by C minor). These techniques challenge the learner to find shapes quickly, ensuring their confidence in hitting all 12 keys. The paragraph concludes by encouraging periodic review and repetition, especially when stumbling upon these chords during real music playing.

Keywords

💡Major chords

Major chords are foundational chords in music theory that consist of a root note, a major third, and a perfect fifth. In the video, major chords like C major, F major, and G major are introduced as basic building blocks for learning to play the piano. These chords are essential for both beginners and advanced players across different genres of music.

💡Minor chords

Minor chords are similar to major chords but differ by having a minor third instead of a major third, giving them a more somber or sad tone. The video explains how to transform major chords into minor chords by lowering the middle note by a half step, emphasizing the importance of learning both major and minor chords as they form the foundation of many songs.

💡Root position

Root position refers to the arrangement of a chord where the root note (the note the chord is named after) is the lowest note. The video focuses on teaching chords in their root position to simplify learning and help students visualize the shapes of chords on the piano. This is crucial for beginners to grasp basic chord structures.

💡Intervals

Intervals are the distance between two notes, measured in half steps or whole steps. In the video, intervals such as the major third (four half steps) and minor third (three half steps) are crucial in defining the difference between major and minor chords. Understanding intervals helps in identifying chord structures quickly.

💡Perfect fifth

A perfect fifth is the interval between the root note and the fifth note of a chord, typically spanning three and a half whole steps. The video highlights that the outer notes of a major or minor chord in root position form a perfect fifth, which can help pianists navigate the keyboard and recognize chord shapes more easily.

💡Half steps and whole steps

Half steps (the smallest interval on a piano) and whole steps (two half steps) are critical for building chords. The video explains how major chords have four half steps between the root and the middle note (major third), and minor chords have three half steps between the root and middle note (minor third). These steps help in identifying and constructing chords.

💡Chord groups

Chord groups refer to the method of organizing chords into smaller, manageable sets for easier learning. The video divides chords into four groups of three based on their shapes (e.g., all-white key chords, chords with a black note in the middle), allowing learners to focus on mastering one group at a time, which simplifies the memorization process.

💡Black and white key patterns

These patterns refer to the specific arrangement of black and white keys that make up different chords. For example, C major consists of all white keys, while D major has a black note in the middle. The video uses these visual patterns to help learners identify chords more intuitively and understand how the same interval distances create different shapes on the keyboard.

💡Circle of Fifths

The Circle of Fifths is a musical tool that arranges chords based on the interval of a perfect fifth. The video suggests using the Circle of Fifths to practice moving through all 12 keys in a structured way, which helps learners internalize chord shapes and their relationships. It’s a valuable method for practicing key transitions and chord progressions.

💡Metronome and rhythm practice

A metronome is a tool that helps musicians maintain a steady tempo during practice. In the video, the speaker recommends using a metronome or a drum track to challenge oneself by practicing chord changes at different speeds or with specific rhythm patterns. This technique is suggested to improve speed and fluency in chord transitions.

Highlights

Major and minor chords are foundational for piano playing across various music genres.

Fluency in finding and recognizing chords from any note is essential.

Learning to think of chords as one shape, similar to recognizing whole words, is efficient.

There are 12 major and 12 minor chords, totaling 24, but learning can be simplified.

Learning the 12 major chords first and then how to change them into minor is recommended.

Dividing chords into four groups of three by shape makes learning manageable.

Root position chords are the original chord positions starting from the root note.

The first group of major chords consists of C major, F major, and G major using only white keys.

Finger technique can vary, but sticking to one method simplifies learning.

The second group of major chords forms a triangle shape with a black note in the middle.

The spacing between notes in chords is identical despite different appearances.

E major is a common point of confusion due to the presence of a black key.

Maintaining a chord's symmetrical shape is crucial for accurate playing.

The third group of major chords follows a black, white, black pattern.

The last group of major chords has unique shapes with all black keys or mixed patterns.

The outside notes of root position chords always form a perfect fifth interval.

Perfect fifths are consistent in terms of note spacing and color matching.

Turning a major chord into a minor involves lowering the middle note by a half step.

Learning minor chords becomes easier once major chords are memorized.

Practicing chords in groups and mixing them challenges memory and recognition.

Using the circle of fifths is an effective way to practice all 12 keys.

Practicing major and minor chords in sequence helps in recognizing patterns quickly.

Transcripts

major and minor chords are the most

common useful and foundational chords to

start learning first on piano you're

going to end up using these in some way

for pretty much whatever kind of music

you want to play

we need to start working towards getting

these foundational chords completely

fluent so you can find them and

recognize them starting from any note

automatically without having to think

about it thinking of them as one shape

think about how we read words we don't

look at every individual letter we

recognize the whole word as one thing

and it's much quicker that way there's

12 of each of those types of chords so

that's 24 things to memorize but we can

start limiting how much you actually

have to memorize by just learning the 12

majors and then learning how to change

them into minor it's really helpful to

split them into four groups of three by

shape and then learn one group at a time

so just having those organized in those

groups and learning one group at a time

gives you manageable chunks to work on

we're just talking about root position

shapes here which if you don't know is

like the original chord position it has

one of each note in order starting from

the root and the root is just the note

that the chord is named after i'm to go

through these major chord groups first

and then the minors talk about some tips

for recognizing them and ways you can

practice there's timestamps below for

each section the first group is the

three major chords that only use white

notes and that is c major

f major

and g major

i'm not really gonna focus on technique

here but just a quick word on fingers

you end up using all different kinds of

fingers in actual music depends where

you've just come from where you're going

to as to what's going to make sense but

i would recommend just sticking to one

thing at the moment you could either do

one three and five

or one two and four

i'm just using one two and three here

because it helps me keep my hand out of

the way of your view the second group is

the three chords that have when they're

in root position have a black note in

the middle it's kind of form a triangle

shape if you connected the dots that is

d major

e major

and a major

and just as a reminder whilst these

shapes appear different on the keyboard

the spacing between the notes is

identical even though the chords look

like a different shape if you count the

amount of half steps between these

chords you'll see what i mean that's why

they're the same type of chord they use

the same intervals and to learn more

about that and to approach building

chords check out my previous video

linked in the description below the

spacing between the root and the middle

note for a major chord when in root

position is four half steps it's

probably quicker to see that by jumping

two whole steps so if you're in doubt

when you're about to play one of these

you can check that we call that note in

the middle the major third the one that

sometimes gets people here is e major

because in the head people are thinking

oh there's a black key in the middle

they sometimes either do that or that by

accident so a useful thing is before you

even think about the exact notes just

keep a sketch of the shape of the chord

in your mind so all of these chords

whilst not perfectly even they are kind

of roughly uh symmetrical so when you

play an e major that's pretty much in

the middle that note this now has is a

much more of a lopsided shape we've got

two notes squished together here and a

big gap there and the same the other way

around if you play that note so remember

it's kind of symmetrical as well as

learning theory and stuff playing piano

is a very tactile thing we've got to get

used to the visual side and the feel of

these shapes the next group is the three

major chords that go black white black

so it's kind of like an upside down

triangle shape and that's d flat major

or it might be called c sharp major

sometimes e flat major

might be called d sharp major other

times and a flat major

which might possibly be called g sharp

major as well if we just use those flat

names a sec if we think about those last

two groups d e and a major well like

that white black white

d flat e flat and a flat major or the

other way around black white black and

the last group then is three chords that

all have unique shapes this is the only

major chord that only has black notes in

it so we could either call that g flat

major or f sharp major if we call it g

major imagine a g being flattened like

that if we call it f sharp major imagine

an f

being sharpened

and then the last two are b flat major

and b major now these go opposite so b

major is white black black

and b flat major is black white white

and again remember they look different

but the spacing between the notes is

identical and here's another handy tip

that works for both the major and minor

chords the outside notes of these chords

when they're in root position is always

a perfect fifth which is three and a

half whole steps away but the handy

thing about perfect fifths is apart from

when we start on b flat and b

they're always matching colors so if you

get used to the feel of that distance

and how that looks and how that feels

under your fingers that's a really

helpful thing to give you the framework

for the outside of these chords and this

is helpful when we get to minor chords

as well so um a fifth of all the white

notes is this distance like this

you can see it's the same distance of

white notes each time and when you

practice this a bit

that a sixth just feels too big and the

one before it a fourth feels too small

and you get to the point where that

feels just right and when we start from

black keys the feel of the distance is

the same except they're now matching

black notes

so these are all fifths here like this

and then we've just got to remember to

watch out for these opposite colored

places when we start from b

or b flat

once you have a major chord memorized

you can then adjust the pattern like i'm

about to show you to turn it into a

minor chord you don't need to start

learning all 12 major chords before

starting on the minors in fact you'll

probably find learning both types

starting from the white keys more useful

and more common as a beginner when we're

playing these in root position like this

all we're going to do to turn this into

a minor chord is lower that middle note

by a half step

now the middle note is only three half

steps or one and a half whole steps from

the root but remember the outside notes

are the same the note we had before in

the major chord we'd call that a major

third and now the one we've moved it to

is now called the minor third so c major

f major and g major then turn into the

triangle shapes with a black key in the

middle

c major becomes c minor f major becomes

f minor g major becomes g minor

the three major chords that had a black

key in the middle when you turn them

into minor chords they all become white

notes so d major move that a half step

down moves to a white note

becomes d minor e major becomes e minor

move that down a half step and a major

becomes a minor

so in those two groups they all kind of

switch around if we look at the next

group turning d flat major into minor

we've got another white note in the

middle here

that's because when we move that down a

half step there's no black key in

between so we still get the same kind of

looking shape and that's going to happen

again with a flat major

moving that note down there we get this

because there's no black heat in the

middle there you might encounter some

funny spellings here whether you call it

a flat or g sharp we're not going to

focus on the spellings at the moment i

have got a video up on how to spell

chords and scales as well you can check

out we're kind of primarily focusing on

just visualizing the notes at the sec if

we look at e flat minor though well when

we had e flat major

if we lower that by a half step now this

time we actually get a black key in the

middle and this happens to be the only

minor chord that only has black notes in

it e flat or d sharp minor and the last

group then g flat major goes from all

black keys to black white black we put

that third down a half step

b flat minor looks like this if we

convert major put the third down a half

step

and

b major was like this if we convert that

to minor and move the third down a half

step so we've got a couple of random

shapes again then but like i said if you

just work on memorizing the major chords

then that one trick to changing to minor

when you get good at seeing that pattern

shift quickly it automatically gives you

12 more chords without having to

actually memorize 12 more individual

things and the good thing is you can

extend that to when you learn different

kinds of chords too every new pattern

you learn gives you 12 new chords and it

limits the amount of things you have to

memorize

so practicing these on your own then i

would suggest to start off by doing one

group at a time and you could even just

start with literally just going up and

down

moving through the chords up and down

like that

do that at your own pace try and get a

little bit quicker for a challenge maybe

put a metronome on to try and force

yourself to find the next one quicker or

you could even put a drum track on you

could get creative and come up with some

kind of rhythm pattern to make it more

interesting

you could try breaking the notes up too

and then mate try this in the next group

as well d e and a again try the same

tactics come up with the rhythm force

yourself to do it quicker and then do

that through each of the groups then try

mixing groups together you can perhaps

do the white notes and then the triangle

shapes mix the triangle shapes with the

upside down triangle shapes mix and

match to try and challenge yourself

focus more on any weaker groups or

weaker specific chords and eventually

try and go through all of them and

here's a couple of tactics when you're

doing basically anything when you're

trying to hit all 12 keys

a good way to do it is to move up in

half steps so start from c start from d

flat start from d so you go c major d

flat major d major e flat major e major

and so on and then you could repeat that

with minor chords and this one's really

good because it really gets you used to

how those shapes morph um depending on

where you start so as you're doing that

basically each note that you're playing

moves up by the same amount and you

imagine if something moves up by the

same amount the spacing between the

things that you move is gonna stay the

same and when the spacing's the same

that means it's the same type of chord a

couple of other ways to hit every key is

to move around something called the

circle of fifths if we move a chord up a

fifth each time it's actually going to

end up hitting all 12 keys and come back

round to the beginning to save

constantly getting higher and higher or

running off the edge you can just change

the octave so if you look at the circle

of fifths i'll put that up on the screen

it would be c

and then g

and then d

and then a

and then e

and then b

and and so on you could do that

backwards as well which is actually

moving around in fourths we sometimes

call that the circle of fourths too or

you could try doing the chords from just

the white notes and then just the black

notes so c major d major e major f g a b

and then the same from the black keys

and lastly one more thing you could try

you could try doing major and then minor

so c major c minor d major d minor e

major e minor and so on just little

things to challenge yourself to find

these shapes quickly you don't have to

do this for ages and occasionally if

you're ever using these chords and when

you're actually playing music and you

find yourself stuttering over when

you're using them perhaps it's time to

take a quick five minutes um a few times

in a week for a little bit just to

brush up on your fundamentals