The 3 Basic Chords
Mar 19th, 2008 by admin
This may be surprising to some people, but in fact most songs can be played with just 3 chords! The 3 chords are the I, IV and V chords of any key.
For example, in the key of C, these 3 chords are:
I - C,
IV - F, and
V - G.
If we were in the key of A, these 3 chords would then be A, D and E respectively. That is because in the A scale, A is the 1st note (I), D is the 4th note (IV), and E is the 5th (V) note.
Perhaps the above is oversimplified, but I hope you will get used to it, because after all the idea here is to try learning to play the piano the simplest way. 
For those who would like things to be politically correct, the 3 chords we mean here are C major, F major, and G major.
And for those who have never played any chords before, a major chord simply means playing the “doe”, “me”, “so” notes together. Therefore, a C major chord is made up of the C, E and G notes (because C is the “doe”, E the “me” and G the “so” of the C major scale).
Similarly an F chord is made up of F, A and C notes (because F is the “doe”, A the “me” and C the “so” of F major scale).
In the same manner, G chord comprises G, B and D notes (because G is the “doe”, B the “me” and D the “so” of the G major scale).
The pictures below illustrate the C, F and G chords:
Figure 1: C Major chord
Figure 2: F Major chord
Figure 3: G Major chord
I guess this is enough for now.
[...] I say that most songs could be played with just 3 chords? In fact, the 3 basic chords may be “tweaked” a little bit here and there to give us many more other chords! As for now, [...]
[...] 20, 2008 by Les Hmye One thing I didn’t mention on “The 3 Basic Chords” post is that, to play a song using chords, usually the chords are played with the right hand, [...]
[...] ‘The 3 Basic Chords’, we came across the corresponding 3 bass notes for Chord I, IV, and V. These bass notes are [...]
[...] 12, 2008 by Les Hmye In fact, by combining the 3 basic chords on the right hand with different bass notes on the left hand, you can pretty much get all the [...]
[...] for now, there are still some tweaking we can do with the 3 basic chords that I should cover first. These include suspension and superimposition, just to sound [...]
[...] 7, 2008 by Les Hmye I have talked about Sus4 and how to improvise it with the 3 basic chords earlier. Sus2 is another form of suspension that can also be improvised with the 3 basic [...]
[...] that look very complicated? But really, let me say it again, you only need to know the 3 basic chords! Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Don’t expect many more blogs til next [...]
[...] Hmye If you remember “the 3 minor chords”, and how we play them by substituting them with the 3 basic chords, and simply combining each of these 3 basic chords with a different bass note, then the summary is [...]
[...] must have noticed that the above makes use pretty much all “the 3 basic chords” and “the 3 minor chords”. In the key of C, the above translates [...]
[...] 29, 2008 by Les Hmye In “The 3 Basic Chords” post, we learned the following 3 [...]
[...] right hand doesn’t need to move much. That’s the beauty of improvising the 3 minor chords using the 3 basic chords! Possibly related posts: (automatically [...]
[...] minor chords can be improvised using the 3 basic major chords. See “The 3 Minor Chords” post to find out about [...]
[...] 2008 by Les Hmye I have done this song the “cheat” way — in the C key and using only the 3 basic chords (on the right hand). I hope a beginner, especially an adult beginner, will find this easy to [...]
[...] it such that you only need 4 chords on the right hand to play the whole song. This 4 chords are the 3 basic chords of the A key, i.e., A, D and E chords; and the G [...]
[...] all. You only need the 3 basic chords (I, IV and V) to play this song (on your right hand, that is). Well, except a C4. Please see [...]
i can’t get it. what is scale? i haven’t encountered that yet. how do you get the chords of the keys? will you please explain?
A scale is a series of notes. There are many different types of scales, e.g., major scale, minor scale, etc. A major scale, which is the most common and basic, is the series of notes that go… “doe”, “re”, “me”, “far”, “sow”, “la”, “dee”, “doe”. So, a C scale is the series beginning from the C note. An E scale, for example, would be the series beginning from the E note. The notes for a C major scale are: C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C. The notes for an E major scale are: E-F#-G#-A-B-C#-D#-E. Therefore the 3 basic chords (I, IV and V) for C key are: C chord (I), F chord (IV), and G chord (V). Whereas, for an E key, the 3 basic chords would be: E chord (I), A chord (IV), and B chord (V).