How To Play Piano Using Chord Symbols
How To Play Piano Using Chord Symbols such as
F6, G7, Cm and so on
Over the years I have been a piano teacher I have had many
people call or write me and ask me something like this:
“I play by ear, or by chords, but lots of music doesn’t
have chord symbols written in — how do I know what chord
to play when?”
“Our hymn book doesn’t tell which chords to use — how can
I know what to play?”
“I read music but don’t have a clue what chords are being
used. How can I know what they are?”
What do you do if you want to play a song using chords
instead of the written sheet music notes, but the song
doesn’t have any chord symbols printed — symbols such as
Cm7, G13, B+, D dim7, etc.?
There’s a logic behind every note written in music, & you
can learn to understand that logic, and therefore
understand music. If you can read music to some degree but
don’t “see through” the written music — don’t understand
what you are seeing — it is now very possible that you can
put on your “chord glasses” that good “chord detectives”
wear to see through all that mass of black printed notes on
a white page of sheet music to quickly understand what
chords are being used and the “family logic” behind it
all.
The “family logic” is this: In every key there are certain
chords which are organic to that key — “family members”,
so to speak. For example, in the key of F the 3 most used
chords are F, Bb and C. In the key of G the most used
chords are G, C, and D. In the key of Eb the most used
chords are Eb, Ab, and Bb. Do you see a pattern here?
Chords are based on scales, and the chords which are used
the most in any key are built on the 1st degree of the
scale, the 4th degree of the scale, and the 5th degree of
the scale. They are identified by using the Roman numerals
I, IV, and V.
So the most used chords in any key are the I chord, the IV
chord, and the V chord. They are the primary chords, and
they are all major. They occur way more than other chords.
The next most used chords are the ii chord, the iv chord,
and the iii chord — all minor chords.
Just knowing these simple facts gives a musician a giant
advantage when learning or playing a song. If he or she
knows the most likely chords that are going to occur in a
song, based on the key of the song, then they can scrape
together other evidence quickly to build an air-tight case
that they know the chords of that song.
For example, let’s take two musicians about to play from a
piece of sheet music. Both read music, but only one knows
chords and music theory. The first musician looks at the
notes and sees a Bb in the bass clef as the first note, a
Eb in the bass clef in the second measure, a Bb in the 3rd
measure, an F in the fourth measure, and so on. He can play
what he sees, but nothing else, because he doesn’t grasp the
fact that the first few measure have given away the fact
that the primary chords have been outlined.