Majors and Minors

If you're an experienced piano player, this will be old knowledge to you. But for beginners, it might be of some value in helping you get started. So, we're going to get down to the very, very basics here, and explain the finger positions for creating any major or minor chord on the piano. To begin, let's take a look at the keyboard and get our bearings.

You'll notice the black keys are arranged in alternating groups of two or three. These are the sharps and flats. Find one of the groups containing only two black keys. These will always be C# and D#. The white key, directly to the left of that pair is a C key. If you go up the keyboard to the next pair of black keys, the white key just to the left of the first black key is also a C key. Everywhere you find two black keys together, the white key to the left of the first black key is a C key. And from there, you can go up alphabetically. Starting with any C note, and continuing up the scale, the keys are D, E, F, G, A, B. And that's all there is to it. The black keys are the sharps and flats. The black key to the right of the C key is C# (C-sharp).

Major Chords

Now that you've gotten your bearings, let's make a chord. Chord formation for majors and minor is mathematical. Since you know where the C key is, let's make a C major chord. With your right hand, place your thumb on the C key. Now go up 4 positions, including the black keys. The first step is the black key (C#) the second is the white key (D), the third is the black key (D#) and the fourth, or our target for the 4th step, which is the E key.

Our next target key is the third position up from there, or the G key. And when you strike those three keys (C, E, G) you will be making a C major chord. Here's what it looks like.


C major chord



This mathematical formula (1, 4, 3) will work for any major chord you wish to create. Try it out. Experiment. If you want to make a D chord, you simply start at D (the key just to the right of C, also a white key) and go up four positions (including the black keys). Then go up three positions from there. You should end up with D, F# (a black key), and A.

Minor Chords

The minor chords are created in the same way, except the numbers change. A minor chord can be made by using the following numbers: 1, 3, 4. In other words, going back to our C major chord, if we wish to change it to a minor, we simply move the second note down one key. The first position is again the C key, the second note moves from the fourth position to the third, which gives us a D#, and the third key remains at the G key, since it's up four keys from the second position. Got it? If not, leave a comment and I'll get back to you with an answer.

Enjoy.