 February, 2001
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An Introduction to Chords
Chords are the words of music.If you want to make up your own music,or understand the music you read and hear, you will need to know chords and their use. A dictionary of chords can be very helpful in getting a handle on the basic triads and their structures.
The distance between the notes in not exactly the same. Notice that the INTERVAL OF A THIRD between the bottom two notes is larger than the third between the top two notes.  To keep the same interval relationship, in many chords sharps or flats are needed:  Any major or minor chord can be the leader chord or "HOME CHORD" (also called the TONIC) in a song. If "C" is the home note in a song, we say the song is in the "KEY OF C." All the chords of that song relate to the home chord. The I and V Chords Let's say that C is home, or I (one in Roman numerals). This implies that the whole C chord is the "HOME CHORD." A complete song has at least two different chords. The second most important chord after the home chord or tonic is called the DOMINANT or V (five in Roman numerals). It is the interval of a fifth higher than the home note. The top note of the I chord is the name of the V chord. If C is I then G is V.   Place your left hand on a C chord (I). Now put your pinky where your thumb is. Your hand will move up to the G or V chord.  To move your right hand to a V chord from a I chord, move your thumb to where your pinky is.  The IV Chord The next most inportant chord in a song is the SUB-DOMINANT. It is called the IV chord (4 in Roman numerals), and is found by moving one whole step (two individual notes) lower than the V chord. It is called sub-dominant because it is also V below home.   Play and listen to these three chords several times. Which one sounds like home to you? Will it make a good ending chord for a song? Inversions Chords have other positions besides root position. These are called INVERSIONS. The same pitches are used to make a chord, but the notes are re-arranged so that they are no longer all a third apart. Chords are always named by what the lowest note would be if the chord was arranged in all thirds, so a chord keeps its name regardless of inversion. Sometimes an inversion is more convenient to reach with your hand as you move from chord to chord. Because the same three notes are in the chord, it has the same function as the root chord. Inversions add a different "color" to the chord's sound. The following are two basic inversions:  These are standard fingerings for chord inversions. However, use whatever fingering works best for you when reading or improvising.   Here are some examples of chord inversions as they appear in songs from the book You Can Teach Yourself® Jazz Piano: FIESTA
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When ROOT POSITION chords are written, the three notes are all on lines or all on spaces. The chord's name is the bottom note. It looks like a "snowman"!