Learning Piano Chords - Part 1

[Ken London]

Learning how to play piano chords is a multi-step process. What this
article is about today is some key introductory points, general piano
tips to consider before you set out on your journey of learning piano
chords.
I'm just going to list a couple of piano tips but these are critical
issues in my view- ones that should not be overlooked.
First off, let's look at piano chord books or piano chord manuals.
When I look at the books, and I continuously am always looking for the
"latest and the greatest" ones, I am particularly amazed at the
multitude of chord piano books that have a photo of a hand where the
fingers are placed on the picture of the keyboard! We do not want that
and here's why...
Here's the deal, piano is not guitar, obviously so. With guitar, it
makes sense to have a picture showing the hand fingering the guitar
chord as many times one finger plays two or more notes all at once,
one finger may dampen a string, etc. The bottom line though on piano
chords, please "Just tell me what notes should be played and keep the
fingers out of the picture" so you're not blocking and obscuring the
notes. You also very rarely play two keys with one finger for piano
but only rarely so. When you learn the rules of fingerings like I
present in my course "Play Piano Like a Pro" and you know "what
buttons to push", i.e., what piano keys to play then you have all the
information that you need to play that chord. In short, if you want to
buy a chord book for piano, pick up one with only the piano keys
highlighted but make sure there's no hands on the keyboard. My top
recommendation is Creative Keyboard Publ. "Deluxe Encyclopedia of
Chords" by Bob Kroepel which is available online or in stores.
The next issue is on really, really learning the piano chord which
then relates to how you memorize the chords. Remember this phrase
"muscle memory"Yep, that factor if not "the" most important factor,
certainly in the top two. After playing a chord many, many, many
times, between your mind logging it into your memory or maybe the
position your hands were in when they played the chord, gets
"uploaded" into your memory. That's why we play the chord a million
times when learning it. You can look at a picture forever, but until
you , physically commit that piano chord and play it with your hands,
you'll never memorize it. Of course too, you want to play the chord
with the "correct fingerings" or else you've committed to memory, the
wrong fingering for that chord.
To get a more in depth look at how we learn piano chords, be sure to
check out my course available at and my blog at www.pianosongs.blogspot.com
Next time we'll look at additional piano tips that will help you and
facilitate the learning of piano chords.

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