Alternative Music Tips And Information

Minor Chords

Minor chords create a sound which is somber or serious; some people even think of minor chords as “sad”, as opposed to major chords which sound “normal”, or “happy”.

Some of the great classics are written in minor keys, including Fur Elise by Beethoven, Prelude in C# Minor by Rachmaninoff, Prelude in Cm by Chopin, and many others. In popular music there is “Summertime”, “A Taste of Honey”, “‘Round Midnight”, etc. and in folk music there is “Greensleeves”, “Dark Eyes”, “Volga Boatman”,”When Johnny Comes Marching Home” and many more.
But minor chords also occur frequently in songs which are written in major keys, and they provide the contrast needed to make a song interesting. The most-used chords in any given key are the I, IV, and V chords which are major, but followed by the ii, iii, and iv chords which are minor. So most songs written in a major key include from 1 to 3 minor chords somewhere along the line.

Killer Piano Playing Secrets of a Chord Addict

I wish you could have seen me play the piano when I was just learning. I was the nearest thing to “hopeless” that you could imagine. I was into baseball, not music; and my heroes were Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Ted Williams. (And by the way, I still have a picture of those 3 guys on my wall.) My dream was to hit baseballs like them, not to play the piano.

But an opportunity to play with a combo presented itself to me when I was a freshman in high school. Seems the piano player of the group had graduated the previous year, and nobody else played piano well enough to play in the school jazz combo. I didn’t know zilch about playing in a group, and I didn’t know chords. But I was excited to have the opportunity to play with older guys, and so I took the job.

What Chords Do You Absolutely, Positively Have To Know

As you probably know, there are thousands and thousands of different chords in music – everything from basic major chords to minor 7ths to 13ths to suspensions to poly-chords. Someday, you might want to learn all those chords if you don’t already know them.

But meanwhile, there are 3 chords—just 3—that you absolutely, positively have to know. If you don’t know these three, there’s hardly a song in the whole world that you could play. But by knowing just 3 chords, you can play hundreds, if not thousands of songs!

Really?

Really.

Are you ready? Here they are:

I IV V

Huh? What’s all that about?

Here’s what: