When I learned piano as a child I was never taught about chords. I look back now and can't believe it.

This aspect of learning music is often overlooked, yet it is of vital importance. Many teachers only seem to focus on reading, memorizing and technical exercises. But to get a true grasp of what is played, knowing the harmony is of utmost importance.

I started self teaching myself guitar about a year and half ago. Step 1 was learning all the chords in the key of C, where my fingers need to go, what strings to strum. Step 2 Getting decent at switching between them Step 3 I learned some popular chord progressions and applied it to Key of C Step 4 Learn some theory about how chords are made, what a scale is, what a key is, roman numeral system, how it all applies to the fretboard, root notes. This took awhile to all sink in. At this point I could improvise on the first 3-4 frets in the key of C,G fairly comfortably. Step 5 Is learning more of the fretboard and more chord shapes up and down the neck, TRIADS are huge. This is where I am at now, learning to explore the neck and alter the chords I've learned with things like hammerons etc. I feel like I have made a lot of progress as a self taught You tube guitarist in those 1.5 years. Thanks for reading.

Chords are what I started learning first! I was not formally trained but taught myself by playing hymns which are mostly always written in four part harmony for people to sing. I missed the old hymns I grew up with and wanted to make sure my kids grew up hearing them too. But then I just kept getting better and naturally started breaking chords up to improvise. It was only later that I moved on to the organ and eventually found an organ teacher who immediately started me on Bach. What a game changer!

You are right. I practice those pieces without noticing the chords, and it was more difficult. Thank you

I have been slowly site reading for about 2 years, and getting no where's fast. I finally threw in the towell, and started with the Chords...My music has inproved so quickly, and enjoyable...I will never go back to notes....

My journey on the piano has been brief I’ve taken 3 lessons with a lot of random internet learning prior for about 6 months on and off. I can attest that discovering the power of chords has ignited my imagination and given me a glimpse of the power behind them. I’m so glad I have a teacher who isn’t teaching piano the way they did when my mother learned.

I have been noodling around with guitar since 1997. Have not made a ton of progress needless to say. I started lessons at the beginning of this year. My teacher is about the same age as I am. First lesson he told me that unlike teachers I may have had in the past, he was not concerned with what I wanted to learn and would focus on teaching me raw basics, specifically chords. I was intimidated by this, but stuck it out. So glad for the focus on chords, as I seem to be making slow but steady progress with them, which had never happened in the past.

Thanks for the video! I recently decided to prepare for my Level 3 certification (as a 60+ adult). I have to play three pieces by memory. Since to this point, I have been focusing on sight reading, my teacher has me finding all the chords in my music so to memorize it faster. It is a little overwhelming since there can be many chord patterns (triads and inversions) in a single key signature. But I am quickly learning the value of recognizing chords - constantly viewing music as a page of individual notes is exhausting!

I am glad that classical musicians finally start to recognise the importance of chords. Well known classical composers, like Bach, used chords but the theory of chords played no role whatsoever. Chords had no names yet and Bach couldn’t have struck an A-minor chord on the piano if being begged to do so. All composers of his time were limited to working with scales, which were well known in those days and had to be practiced endlessly by students. Composing in chords was already being used in folk music and started te become important and influential with the introduction of the blues, the first style in history that used a well defined and well known chord-structure. Since then, 99.9% of the music is based on chord-structures, while classical musicians are still sticking to their scales. Therefore your video is important.

I was very fortunate that my first piano teacher taught me this learning method.

WOW YOU ARE BETTER THAN MAGIC....I HAVE BEEN PLING PLONGING ALONG FOR 59 YEARS AND I NEVER KNEW THIS ! what an epiphony. THANKS- A -MILLION GOOD GENTLEMAN..... FOR GIVING ME A NEW LEASE ON PIANOLIFE ! I am now 67.

I started music by playing the accordion by ear, but later I started learning notes and developed in reading them. I then noticed that the left hand keys were just chords and basic notes i.e. for C major scale there were, starting from inner to outer the third note of the scale which is E, then it was C, and then C major,, C minor, C seventh, and C diminished. by ear I found out the notes in every chord and some years later I knew quite a bit on chords. When I was 60, I started to play piano, and it was very helpful to know something about chords. I think what is in this piano tip, is very helpful and well-given! thank you!

We started in chords as kids, but quickly switched to classical training. I am going to take lessons almost 40 years later & will focus on chord progression & accompaniment. I love Mozart’s Sonata in C.

…and a lovely classical selection at the same time! Thanks

I always look at the chords first. In fact, unless the song is very easy, I write down the chords on the score to help me find the notes more easily when I read the music. And knowing the chord progression helps with memorizing, because you can recognize cadences and patterns like VI-II-V-I .

I figured this out on my own long ago, but, rediscovered it again once I saw that YT video showing 4 chords = most pop songs.

As a beginner, I can tell that starting with chords allow you to make sense of Modes, which is better for improvisation and composing, therefore having fun playing.

thanks Robert. This is such a helpful reminder. I'm working on a piece with a challenging 3-note glissando and practicing as a chord first helps me get used to where my fingers need to go. I tried this for a portion of my practice today and it was really helping!

Yes Robert...this is an ah-ha moment for me and as a piano student had never incorporated this aspect into learning pieces!Hopefully this will speed up my learning process Many blessings to you and thanks for this golden nugget of information! Will start to apply ASAP!

Always insightful. Thank you

I used this method recently to learn the 1st movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. I wasn't able to play every chord solid (my hands are tiny) but it showed me which intervals I would need to break and which melody notes would need to be held by the sustain pedal. Very useful.

His first song example, I, a long time ago, arranged it for 7 RH quaver strokes for each chord, one stroke each the bass. Sounds excellent.x

Great video! Yes, my teacher advised me to practice this way. She said look at the chords, name the what inversion they are etc. this will not only improve proper finger use but sight reading.

Thank you so much for this suggestion!!! I never thought of learning a classical piece this way before.

Thank you for this insightful video!

wonderful thanks

Merci Robert. Great advice as always. I also started to try to learn thoroughbass, and it's helped with my interval recongnition. I transcribed the C Major Prélude and it was easy to transpose it into other keys.

Thank you! Great tip! X

As a guitarist and accordion player just learning to read properly and play these pieces this is the approach I adopted though sometimes it’s hard to put a clear name to some chords. I love the piano particularly because it’s so easy to change chords often by moving just one finger, especially compared with some classical or jazz pieces on guitar!

Thanks Robert

Thank you, I only just began to understand chords and love trying to play them. I have saved this to refer to again and again.

Thanks for the advice, I'm going to give this a try

Very helpful thanks. Playing chords, as you say, helps with harmony and this supports improvisation - I’m an organist and still struggle with improvisation.

Excellent ❤

Thank you, Sir, I'll try this. I've actually done this several times and I do think it works. So right on!

Excellent 😊

That makes complete sense wow!

You mentioned understanding in a deeper way, so it’s good to explain what chords are, and how they derive from scales. Scales identify the notes in a key, so one should first learn the scale and chords in the key that you’re playing in., which will hint at the idea of function. This will open the door to that deeper understanding of tonality that you referenced.

You play beautifully!

I was taught to learn chords first but many did not like that approach then but now I realise that Chords first approach is useful for piano style, church hymns and other Tamil Lyrics in the church..very useful approach

Thank you for this.... When my daughter was learning the Prelude, I taught her by way of the chords... that's because one of my teachers taught me to look at the chords... I also showed her how Bach moved from one harmony to the next, how a mior 7th works (Beethoven loved them), and how to memorize that way, too, while learning a bit of music theory... It works in many pieces, as you point out. I learned Chopin's Opus 25 No 12 etude with the chords first... it helps with the jumps as well... Thanks again.

Great idea, I'm struggling with alberti bass with melody right now, and I'm going to try this, thanks

I think this will really help with one piece I'm really struggling with. Thank you.

Super super super lovely tips of learning of chord Augustine violinist from Malaysia

Been trying for years to learn to sight read. What a slog! Getting nowhere fast. This video has made me feel there is hope for me yet, to make some beautiful music lol. Can't wait to get all my duties out of the way so l can get back to my keyboard to try this. Thankyou so much.

My teacher offers the same sage advice. She advocates simplifying new, complex pieces to get a sense of the harmonic structure and the melody; after one has a handle on the basic structure, it is easier to add the refinements like broken chords and ornaments.

Interesting......I play jazz, and in learning standards (on guitar, btw), I always arrange both melody and chords together on the fretboard to understand the composition....this also aids immeasurably in learning how to improvise on the tune.

It's a great tip. Also helps to 'chunk' sections when reading music (I can't yet easily sight read arpeggios or individual notes, but I spot patterns once I know them, at least!)

Thanks! I don't practice this way, but I'm going to now!👍

Practicing chords often leads to fingers rigidity after, and lack of confidence. When you play any sequence of notes you should align your tendons with the axis of the wrist, which implies slight ulnar or radial deviation of your hand. I advice to use all of the possibilities of the hand: scales, chords, arpeggios, chromatic scales, etc. and play them slow and with some sort of “accents” you choose in order to support and lift the weight of the hand. And if you play chords, please relax the fingers between each chord (which can be quite bizarre when you start, as you’re trying to reconfigure the fingers searching for the next position, but is extremely important). Pianist and physiotherapist, play relaxed and music will come easy to your hand! 😎

I play jazz so building up from the harmony is very helpful. Time to turn my classical sheet music into lead sheets

I started as the church pianist and assistant organis at age 14 by starting with chords.

Good tip!

I totally agree. It's frustrating to want to play a relatively easy song and find several chords you don't know well.

Years ago I would have considered it sacrilegious to reduce the arpeggiated figures of the masters to vulgar and common block chords. Such impertinence, really! But then I saw a guy do this with the prelude in C minor (same book), and it was just like you said. Suddenly the underlying structure was perfectly transparent. I didn’t have to wind my brain into knots figuring out the minutia of fingerings. I was free to explore various musical ways it can be played so that its performance can sound fresh and spontaneous and not like an overly practiced display of muscle memory. The beautiful voice leadings reminiscent of Corelli’s chains of suspensions emerge from the clutter of notes. It is all too easy with Bach to get bogged down with the drudgery of having to play all those notes and to lose sight of Bach’s wonderful sense of musicality that is the kernel for all his compositions.

Thanks for video. 😊 I did play the chord like this, or break down a chord into Liszt style narrative triad that spans more than the octave. E.g. Cmajor to C3 G3 E4.

I do this now in a smaller way with pop songs, Billy Joel and such. I look up the guitar chords to get the basic chord progression and then just work with that to see how close I can get to what I think the songwriter was doing. Then after a while I start looking more closely at the artist's performance and seeing how close I came and what else I can pick up. If there's a solo section or something that's out of my reach technically, I can still plug along with the chords which feels great.

I did learn chords first. But the music reading is tough! 😆

I'm going to try this... i find learning sonatinas very tough.

I am a self taught beginner, but I always practice and think about the chords. When I learn a piece I always play chords or octaves in the left hand.

Wonder if could request, would love to see you playing the full version of that Piano Sonata K-545 C major ;)

Diatonic chords in key; voicing, & style, all insightful learning!

That's why the technique is so important.

I have used this method, not only does it make it easier to learn the piece it also, for me at least, makes it easier to memorize a piece.

👌

Yes and the Same with the guitar.

Can you put together a follow-up explainer for how a beginner can go about identifying the chords to practice for a piece of music? Both sheet music and off the radio?

I wasted so much time trying to memorize the keys that I was pressing. Then I started to figure out chord structures and my progress grew by leaps and bounds. There's no need to memorize keys anymore. Learning a song used to take hours, now it takes minutes.

Never did that. I was taught to play what is written till I get it perfect.

❤

Chords and scales are like particles and waves

No one MUSt do anything when it comes to creativity. That being said I am a self taught pianist learning through chords only.

All this years I believed it was Robert Esteim.. now I read Estrin 🤣

Thanks, a list of these music please which are useful to practice chords. Tia.

This was an epiphany moment for me. I'll have to try this. By the way, you roll your chords nicely. When I try to roll because of my small hands, it's a disaster (sounds choppy).

If everyone started with chords, there would be no Fats Domino, or Jerry Lee Lewis. There is a divide, between readers, and the compelled. Style, is liberty, and music is more because of it. Start where you are comfortable. You will discover chords, creating chords, theory, and systems, are on the road. I love style.

An epiphany moment for sure!

Thanks, interesting video. did the great composers think harmony when they were composing the pieces, or did they come up with melodies and fit the harmony around it?

Not sure how to practise chords first with Rachmaninoff's OP23 #6 prelude. But the C# minor prelude I think I can see how... :))

Brooo its only me who related starting melody to rach no2??? It was soooo similar bro

WHY HAVE I NEVER HEARD THIS!?

Aha moment!

What are all the names of the songs he played ?

Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata would be amenable to this strategy. The entire movement contains broken chords.

I sometimes practice this way but not as often as I should 🫢

Only classically "trained" players need to be told this 😀 Actually I'm just jealous bcs I still can't play a two-part invention. I do however understand the harmony 🧐

Blocking lol. It’s great.

I couldn't understand name of peices .

Each key has like 36 cords.

This is why fugues are so difficult to memorize : because you can not break down them easily to simple chords

Nice video. The piano would be more pleasing to hear if it were in a little better state of tune.

I had to reverse engineer the piano by ear. Chords is all I know. I'm teaching myself to site read. I wish I wasn't poor growing up, so that I could rent a teacher.

guitar payers think like this

Is that a bust of Robert Plant on piano?

Them Scandinavians know what to do with all the wrong notes.

Don't abuse pedal.

Try that in the SECOND Prelude in C minor ;)

I totally agree I've used this method to learn pieces, but sadly I don't use it enough to truly make lasting progress with my pieces.