Summary
Highlights
The video provides a refreshed tutorial on common piano chords, acknowledging older videos had lower quality. It's especially useful for Christmas music and reading sheet music with chord notations. An index of chords with timestamps is available on the creator's website for easy navigation.
Understanding thirds is crucial for building chords. A major third consists of five notes (black and white keys counted from the starting note), while a minor third consists of four notes. Practice building these intervals on different root notes to grasp the concept.
Voicings and inversions are different ways to play the same chord. While the tutorial focuses on root position, any combination of the chord's notes is valid. Voicings refer to varied arrangements of notes, while inversions change the bass note by moving notes up an octave. The key is to use only the notes of the chord, no more and no less.
A major chord is built with a major third and a minor third stacked on top. For instance, C major is C, E, G. A minor chord is a minor third with a major third stacked on top, or by taking a major chord in root position and lowering the middle note by a semitone.
The dominant seventh chord (e.g., G7) is formed by taking a major chord and adding another minor third on top. This results in a four-note chord that can be inverted and voiced in various ways.
A minor seventh chord (e.g., D minor 7) is built by taking a minor chord (minor third + major third) and adding another minor third on top.
Major seventh chords (e.g., B-flat major 7) are constructed by adding a major third on top of a basic major triad. These chords have a distinct, often described as 'distinctive' or 'jazzy,' sound.
Sixth chords are common in early and mid-20th-century music and jazz. They are formed by taking a major triad and adding a note that is a sixth interval above the tonic. An F6 chord, for example, is F-A-C-D. Interestingly, an F6 chord uses the same notes as a D minor 7 chord, with the base note determining the chord's name.
Ninth chords expand on seventh chords by adding another third. A G9 chord is a G7 chord with an added major third at the top. A G major 9 is a G major 7 with an added minor third at the top. The 'add 9' chord is different, taking a basic major chord and adding the ninth note but typically dropping it into the chord's heart and omitting the seventh note for a warm, distinctive sound. Care should be taken with notation, as 'C9' might sometimes refer to an 'add 9' by lazy arrangers.
Suspended four (sus4) chords replace the third of a major triad with the fourth. For example, E sus4 replaces the G# in E major with an A. The 'sus' implies the note is suspended and often resolves. The fourth note is the sixth key (black or white) counting up from the root. One of the existing notes in the triad is usually omitted to prevent harsh clashes.
Diminished chords are frequent in jazz and show tunes. A diminished chord is built using two minor thirds stacked (e.g., C diminished is C-E-flat-G-flat). A diminished seventh chord adds a third minor third on top (e.g., C-E-flat-G-flat-B-double flat). These chords create tension and have a limited number of unique voicings due to their symmetrical construction.
Augmented chords were popular in music from the 1920s and 30s. They are formed by taking a basic major triad and sharpening the top note (the fifth) by one semitone. For example, C augmented is C-E-G#. Like diminished chords, augmented chords also have cyclical properties in terms of their inversions.
The tutorial concludes, noting that other less common chords often contain instructions for their construction within their names. The presenter plugs their book, 'How to Really Play the Piano,' which delves deeper into these concepts, and mentions their Patreon campaign for channel support.