How many piano chords are there?

12 major chords There are 12 major chords that you can play on the piano. To make a major chord, you play the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of a major scale together. For example, the C major scale has the notes: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. So you use C E G to make the major chord.

piano-lessons-info.com - 12 Major Chords - Piano Lessons Info

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What Are the 12 Major Chords?

There are 12 major chords that you can play on the piano. To make a major chord, you play the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of a major scale together. For example, the C major scale has the notes: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. So you use C E G to make the major chord. Keep in mind that you call one black note by 2 names, like C# and Db. Chords like this have the same notes but are called and written differently. Both ways will be written here.

About Major Chords

Major chords are written as just a letter name. They come from major scales and use the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the scale with the same name. (You can learn more about this on the chord theory page.)

Here they are:

D = D F# A Db = Db F Ab

G = G B D Gb = Gb Bb Db

Video Playlist of the 12 Major Chords

Chart of The 12 Major Chords (+ 2)

Charts can be useful and here is one for you. This is the chart of all the major chords for piano. You can also find this and the individual major chords at Piano Lessons on Pinterest.

Chart of Major Chords

Major Chord Quiz / Game

We have created a little quiz or game for you to practice coming up with the notes in the different major chords.

Check out the major chords quiz page here.

Old School Chart:

This is the original chart of the major chords I published on the site. I've just left it up here as it shows things slightly differently and you may find it useful. These major chords are the most common ones you’ll come across when playing a song. Learning and knowing these will get you a long way. To learn some more kinds of chords, go to minor chords or back to chord charts.

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Ultimate Chord Cheat Sheet

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How do you practice difficult piano pieces?

Start playing through your notes very slowly - giving yourself plenty of room to learn the notes without feeling stressed or frustrated. Target the measures and sections that are more challenging than the others. Practice these areas very slowly and more often than the measures that you can easily play.

instructables.com - How to Practice a Hard Piano Piece : 5 Steps - Instructables

What an exciting place to be in your piano learning when you are ready to learn your first concerto, or sonata, or really any kind of music that we consider to be more "advanced" music than what we learned when we first started playing the piano. Think about all that you have learned since you first started playing the piano:

Scales

Notes in your music and where they are on the keyboard

Rhythm and counting

Key Signatures and Time Signatures

Playing with a metronome

You have a lot of tools in your toolbox to approach this next level of your playing with confidence.

Now you're ready to learn a longer piece that may have different movements - such as a concerto or sonata; and it will be filled with lots of different rhythms, notes, key signatures, time signatures, articulations, dynamics, and other things. Looking at all of this, in the beginning, can seem daunting! How in the world do we learn all of this?

There are certain ways that you can approach learning a hard piece and getting through it the first few times so you will set yourself up for positive growth in your practice time each day. Let's find out what those specific things are that you can do so you will be successful in learning whatever level of music you want to play on the piano!

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