Questions about studying piano chords.. please help.?

Question

hi to everyone. I'm self-studying the piano and I'm still a beginner.

I need help about chords. can you please tell me what are the things I should know about studying them? I don't quite know how to start. I was told by a fellow keyboardist to try memorizing them all but I get bored coz I'm not sure about its purpose. he showed me that he can do the "playing by ear" or from what I understood, guessing the notes of a piece.

so from there, what exactly are the piano chords? how important is it to learn them? I tried learning 2 or 3 pieces and it really took me many months to finish working on them. so I'm curious if I'd be able to learn a piece much faster if I learned about chords.

and another question is about "broken chords". it confuses me when I read some music sheets, there is a chord name indicated above a series of notes and each of those notes are not always exactly the same as those on the chord tables. I find it kinda confusing to indentify what chord those notes could be.

thanks so much for your advices.

Answer 1

About broken chords: if by "series of notes," you mean a series in a melody, it's possible that those melody notes could all "work" with a basic underlying harmony, if even not all of the notes belong to that chord.

If the series of notes is played simultaneously, i.e. all in one chord, it could be that the chord symbol has been simplified a little. For example, the chord C-B flat- E- A is a C 13 chord; but someone might simplify and call it C7, which is similar, though that doesn't account for the A.

(Gets tricky, doesn't it?)

About the order of notes: yes, you can mix up the order of notes in a chord, and it's still the same chord.

Answer 2

Here's some great sites for you

http://www.musictheoryminute.com/

(ignore "how" he's playing the piano I think he does this to make people who don't play piano feel better about themselves)

A piano chord machine (easy to use)

http://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/pi...

For basic explanations about all aspects of music you can't beat this site very easy to understand.

http://www.musictheory.net/

(use the "LESSONS" drop down menu)

Answer 3

Ah, well, some people prefer playing by learning the basic chords because it s easier to play like that instead of the actual sheet of music. It can get a bit boring because audience require different kind of music not same notes put in a different pitch/moved to another octave. So I'd say learn the piano the traditional wa and once you get used to the notes you won't regret it because the piano has one of the most beautiful sounds =)