Piano Lessons Central
The four Chord Groups
The purpose of the following lessons is to develop playing skills in three areas.
1. Three note chords in their root, first, and second inversions.
2. The ability to play arpeggios in any key and in any time signature.
3. The ability to play various Major and Minor scales in any key and in any time signature.
As you gain knowledge and technical ability, these studies will give you a framework which can be used to play by ear and create original accomaniments in any style.
You only need to read music well enough to learn what is taught in the lessons. This study is not for those who desire to sight read, but for those who want to learn the nuts and bolts of music by slowly learning chords, arpeggios, and scales, then building speed so they can create their own music.
Another benefit of this study is that you will soon have a good working knowledge of music theory.
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Lets get the thought process started:
There are a total of twelve notes in an octave. We can build a major chord on each of these tones. That's how we get twelve major chords. These twelve chords can be divided into four groups which make learning the inversions arpeggios and scales a lot easier. As you go through these lessons, the mystery and guesswork you may have had regarding music theory will be replaced by confidence.
The musical alphabet is so simple: ...ABCDEFGABCDEFGABCDEFG... and on it goes, up and down, but it never changes. There is absolutely no need to even think about sharps and flats yet. Sharps and flats will be a no-brainer after you learn the four groups of chords. Sliding Scale visual aid
The Four Chord Groups
The 12 major chords, when played as three note chords in root position on the piano, can be divided into four groups to make learning them easy. When you divide the 12 chords into four groups, that means there are three chords in each group. The following four lessons will give you the sheet music necessary to learn the chords, arpeggio's, and scales for each group. Here are the four groups:
1. White White White: Chords C, F, and G
2. White Black White: Chords A, D, and E
3. Black White Black: Chords Ab, Db, and Eb
4. Odd Chords group:
F# (Black Black Black) / Bb (Black White White) / B (White Black Black)
One more thing before we start lesson #1:
One other thing to say at the start. We will be using two number systems when talking about music. Each system is the obvious 1,2,3...etc. The difference between the two is that one number system is used in reference to the the key signature, and the other number system is used when refering to an individual chord within a key signature.
For instance, the note D is the 1, or first note of the scale in the key of D - speaking in terms of the Key. But if we for instance look at the Major four chord in the key of D (which is G), the note D becomes the fifth, because we are looking at it in relationship to the G chord, and G is the one of the G chord, D is the fifth of the G Chord.
If you didn't follow the last paragraph, pick it apart, and use your fingers to count the steps as you say the notes of the alphabet. Click to look at the Sliding Scale. Are we having fun yet?