Music Chords

     Chords are chords, no matter what the instrument. It's all music chords.

     But of course most instruments, such as saxes and trumpets and trombones, can only play one note at a time. They can imply more by playing notes rapidly -- for example I could play Bb then D then F on my trombone rapidly so that the impression is that of a Bb chord -- the notes accumulate in the listeners mind -- but I can really only play one note at a time. (In college I played in a trombone quartet called "The Brass Men" -- we traveled the West Coast one summer -- and of course 4 trombones playing all at once can play chords -- even complex chords.)
    

     But it takes an instrument such as a guitar or a piano to be able to play all the notes of a chord simultaneously. And of course a guitar chord "looks" different than a piano chord, and the tone quality is different, but it is still the same chord, no matter what the instrument.

     Here are some chords as they look on the music staff and on the piano:

And here's what major chords look like when played on the piano with your left hand:

      There are many other chord types, of course, besides major chords -- there are minor chords, augmented chords, diminished chords, diminished 7th chords, 7th chords, major 7th chords, 6th chords, 9th chords, and on and on. If you want to learn all about chords, then please subscribe to the free newsletter at the bottom of this page