Chords for How to Play Piano (the quick way)

[F#] In this video, I'm going to teach you as quickly as I can how to read and play chords for those with zero piano experience.
Okay, so here we go.
So if you look at the piano for the first time here,
you'll see that there's a pattern of two and three black notes, right?
So two three, two three, two three, all the way up the keyboard, right?
So that pattern of five black notes, two and three.
If you look at those five black notes,
there [G] are seven white notes that surround it, [F#] right?
So in total there's seven plus five, which is twelve.
So there's twelve notes that exist [D#] that repeats of the keyboard.
Those are the [C] twelve unique notes.
So let's learn those notes.
If we look at just the white ones,
_ [B] those seven, each of those seven has a letter name, letter of the alphabet.
So [C] if we start with here, the [N] note in front of the two [C] black notes,
that's the letter C.
[D#] And you can think of this as the C group, the notes that surround the two black [C] notes.
So you [D] have C, D, [E] and E, right?
Just up the [C] alphabet, [E] C, D, [A#] E.
Now if you look at the three black notes [G] here,
there are [F] four notes that surround it, right?
And this is the letter F.
So you can think of this as the F group.
[G#] So in front of the three black notes [F] here, you have the F.
So [G] that's just F, G.
[A] Then once you get to the letter G, it flips back to A.
So it's A, [B] B.
And then look, you're [C] back at C.
Because C is in front of the two black notes.
And you just go up the [D] alphabet, C, [F] D, E, [G] F, G.
[A] Flip over, [B] A, B.
[C] And you're back at C.
Now we need to learn the black notes, [F#] right?
So if you notice, [C#] all the black notes are between two white notes.
So if we choose a black note like this, [C] it's between [D] C and D.
[C#] So it has two names.
You can call it a D flat or a C sharp.
Sharp means above, flat means below.
So below D, D flat.
Above C, it's also called a C sharp.
Right, let's pick another [F#] one.
This note is between what two notes?
[F] It's between [G] F and G, [F#] right?
So this is an F sharp or a G flat.
[D] Okay, so now that you understand notes, the next thing you have to understand are what we call intervals.
Intervals are two notes or the distance between two notes.
So say for example, you have two pennies here, and you have a distance from one penny to the other penny.
If you move it here, now you have a wider distance, right?
And a wider distance or a wider interval.
You can see here, same thing with notes.
You can have a very narrow distance, [G] _ [Cm] or you can have a wider interval, right?
And so depending on how wide it is or whatnot, it's called something different.
So our smallest [C#] interval, that's called minor second.
The next biggest interval from [D] here to here, that's a major second.
[Cm] The next biggest interval from here to here is a minor [C] third, and then you have a major third.
Okay, so these are the intervals that we're going to work [C#] with.
Minor [D] second, [Cm] major second, [C] minor third, major third.
Notice that [Cm] a minor third [D] has two [C#] notes inside of [C] it, and a major third distance [D#] has three notes inside of it.
[F] So with that knowledge, we can go play other minor thirds and other major thirds.
So over here, that's a major [G] third, right?
Because there's [Fm] three inside of [D#] it.
If we go here, that's a [F] major third, [F#] [D#] because it has those [C] three notes inside [F#] of it.
[B] Here, [Cm] that's a major third, [D] because there's these three notes inside of it.
[Bm] But if we played this, that's a minor [C#] third, because it has two notes, [Fm] right?
And so is this.
That's a minor third.
[G] _ [C] Okay, so now that we know what a major third and minor third is, what we can do is use those to build chords.
Chords are three notes.
So we have notes which are singular, we have intervals which are two notes, and we have chords which are three notes.
So there are major chords and there are minor chords.
A major chord is a major third, like that, plus a minor third.
_ [G] See?
Because you have [Cm] three here, and then you have [F#] two here.
[C] So three, two.
Major third, minor third.
That creates a major chord.
And since we have C at the bottom, it's called [Cm] a C major chord.
To play a minor chord, it's the reverse.
So you have a minor [C#] third, which is two [D#] notes, right?
And a major [F] third, which is three [D#m] notes.
[Cm] So together, that is a C minor chord, because you have a minor third and a major third.
With that knowledge, we can play different chords now.
So say we wanted to play an F sharp major triad, or major chord.
Right?
So we find the F sharp.
[F] So this is F.
[F#] Sharp means above.
That's an F sharp.
Now, we need a major third first.
[Gm] So we have those three notes here.
So [A#] that's this one.
And then we need a minor third.
So [C] two notes.
[C#m] [F#] And then here.
That is a F sharp [A] major chord.
Now if we want to play an A major chord, start with A.
You need three [C] notes, [C#] [D#] and then two [A] notes.
That's an A major chord.
If you want to play an A minor chord, all you do is lower the [Am] middle note.
Because now, you've [B] shifted it over.
So now you have two here, and [D] you have three [Am] here.
Right?
Because you have a minor third and a major third.
It's the reverse.
[C] Okay, so those are your chords.
The next thing you need to understand are what we call inversions.
So you can take a chord like a C major chord, and you can reorder it.
So the notes here are C, E, and G.
But what if you took away the C here, and you put it up here?
Now you have a different inversion, right?
And we take away the E here, and we put it up there.
Now we have another inversion.
And there's only going to be three versions of it, right?
Because there are three notes.
So you have three different versions with a different note at the bottom.
One with C at the bottom, one with E at the bottom, one with G at the bottom.
Those are your inversions.
Those are important because say we want to play a song with a chord progression.
A chord progression is a group of chords.
So our chord progression, for example, could be C major [G] chord, G major [Am] chord, A minor [F] chord, F chord.
You see [C] how that sounds very jumpy when you play it in those root positions [G] like this?
[Am] _ [F] _ [C] To make it sound more smooth, you can play different variations of them, meaning different inversions.
So how about this C, to this [G] G, _ [Am] to this A minor, to this [F] F.
[C] And with the left hand here, we're just going to play the root.
So if you're playing a C chord, you just play a C in the left hand.
C, [G]
G, _ [Am] A minor.
_ [F] _ _ _
[C] See that?
How smooth that sounds, and how natural that sounds.
I'm going to show you now an easy way to do that, which is called voice leading.
Because it's sort of like your three fingers are like a choir.
These voices are moving [G] very smoothly, like a choir [Am] voices would move smoothly in choral [F] music.
_ [C] So how you do it is you write out the notes, you write out the letters.
So you can write out C, E, G, [G] then you write out G, B, D, [Am] then you write out [F] A, C, E, and then you write out F, A, C.
And then you want to circle all the common notes, [C] like C, E, G.
The C chord has the G in [G] common with the G chord, because they both have G.
And then the next one doesn't have anything in common, so you don't circle [Am] anything, [F] because [Am] the A minor is A, C, E, nothing in common.
But then the F, A, C has the A and [F] the C in common.
So you circle those.
All the letters that aren't circled, you draw arrows over to the next notes.
And basically, all the circled letters are what you keep the same, and all the arrows are what you move.
So say we [C] start with C, G, since G is circled, but the other [G] two have arrows, so you just move those notes to the new notes.
And then if there's nothing circled, that means all three letters move.
[Am] _ And then here we have two letters circled, [F] and just one arrow, so all you do is just move the E to the F. _
And that's what you can do for any chord progression when you look up chord progressions online.
Just draw, figure out the chords, now that you know how chords are built.
Draw the letters, circle the common letters, draw the arrows pointing, and then you'll have this professional voice leading sound.
Last thing you have to add is rhythm.
So most songs are in 4-4 [N] time, or 4 beats per measure, so you can just do a very basic rhythm pattern, [C] which is_
1, 2, 3, 4, [G] 1, 2, 3, 4, [Am] 1, 2, 3, 4, [F] 1, 2, 3, 4.
And your left hand is just holding notes for 4 beats.
But that's it!
You can now look up any song online, and if they have chords, you can read them and start playing and singing at the