3 Primary Chords Are The Keys To Playing Lots Of Songs!

If you learn 3 primary chords on the piano there are literally hundreds of songs you can play.

Click on this link to watch this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7q3TvYMaFQ&feature=youtu.be

Good morning. This is Duane and sometimes I have people come up to me and say, “Listen, I love to play the piano. Are there any songs I can play with just a couple of chords?” The answer is yes, there are, but better if you know 3 chords. If you know 3 chords, then you can play literally hundreds of songs. I have had a list in my possession in the past. I can’t find it right now but that showed several 100 songs you could just play with 3 chords.

Let me just illustrate. Let’s say I wanted to play “Amazing Grace.” I could play that with just 3 chords. I just used the C chord, the F chord, and the G chord. I could play “Silent Night” the same way. I could play “On Top of Old Smokey.” I could play “When the Saints Go Marching In,” and so on. I could play lots and lots of songs with just 3 chords.

The problem is how do you know which chords to learn? Well, there’s 3 chords … the answer is really quite easy … there are  3 chords that are called the 3 primary chords. That means main chords, homeboy chords. Like in your family you have a core family. There’s a Mom and a Dad and a child, let’s say. There could be several but there’s 3, a basic core. In music, it’s the same way. There’s 3 primary chords that are used way, way more than any others. If you learn those 3 chords, then you can get by with zillions of songs. “Happy Birthday.”

You may want to play more exciting than that and you can certainly learn to do that, but that’s a start, knowing what those chords are. Let’s take at the easiest key to play in. That’s the key of C. You see, there’s 12 possible keys I could play in. I could play in the key of C. I could play in the key of D flat. I could play in the key of D. I could play in the key of E flat, and so on, but it’s easy for a beginner to play in the key of C because all the notes are white keys. If you learn 3 chords in the key of C, you can get by. The I chord is the C chord, that’s the main home chord. It’s called the tonic chord, the home chord. That’s made up of every note up from C.

The next most important chord is the V chord. The V chord would be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. If I just come up here and build a chord using every other white key, that’s the V chord. The other chord is the IV chord, 1, 2, 3, 4. If I just learn the C chord, the F chord, and the G chord, I can play all those songs that I just played a minute ago plus hundreds of others.

I would start that way. You could start just by playing those 3 chords in root position. In other words, not upside down, but it’s easier once you know what they are to play them upside down. That way, you don’t move your hand that much. For example, I could play the C chord like that and I could play the F chord like that. Why do I say that? Well, that’s still the F chord. All I’ve taken is C off the top and put it on the bottom. That way, I can move easily from the C chord to the F chord.

Then, if I keep my hand frozen and just move up 1 whole white key on all those, I get to the G chord. There’s 3 chords, C, F, and G. With those 3, you can harmonize tons and tons of songs, playing the melody in your right hand and the chords in your left hand. You can start out like that. Then as you get better, you can start chording. Then you can start arpeggiating, and so on. You can take it step-by-step.

You can start out like that and get to, and then you could play a full style, but it all starts with learning those 3 basic chords. If you are anxious to start playing the piano with chords, then learn those 3 chords I just identified: the I chord, the IV chord, and the V chord.

That’s it for today. If you enjoyed these little tips, come on over to Play Piano and sign up for a whole series of tips. Hope to see you there. Bye-bye for now.

Click on this link to watch this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7q3TvYMaFQ&feature=youtu.be

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Here’s a great little book on chords and chord progressions on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Chords-Chord-Progressions-Exciting-ebook/dp/B0076OUGDE/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404158669&sr=1-1&keywords=piano+chords+duane+shinn

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