Keyboard Chord Instructions printable pdf download

Instructions

Keyboard Chord

Attention all keyboardists!!

This instruction sheet is designed specifically for you! Many of you may not understand how to

play a song by reading chords because of your training with music. This is intended to help

you learn how to do so! The chart that accompanies this page is fairly self-explanatory, but a

few helpful hints may be necessary.

Each measure represents one specific chord played 3 different ways. For instance, the first

measure on the page is “A.” There are many ways to play the A chord on a piano, and this

illustrates three proper ways to do so. When playing a song by chords, sometimes it’s

necessary to change the fingering and position of each chord so you’re not flying all over the

keyboard, and to make the sound of the keyboard part more fluid.

The root position of A is simply played by playing the notes A, C

, & E. When you map out

an A scale, you can give each note a number. For example:

A scale notes:

# to correspond:

To build a chord, all you’re doing is playing the 1, 3, & 5 notes of the scale. This works for

every chord. Isn’t that beautiful? The 1

inversion of the chord is simply taking the bottom

(or root) note of the chord and moving it to the top of the chord (in this case, A moves from the

bottom to the top – so you play: C

, E, & A). The 2

inversion is going one step further and

moving the 3 of the chord (in this case C

) from the middle to the top – so you play: E, A, & C

For minor chords, you take the 3 of the chord (C

) and move it down a ½ step. So instead of

playing, A, C

, & E for A

, you play A, C, & E for A

. This is noted below each measure for

maj

min

each specific chord.

If all this seems overwhelming and confusing, just practice getting to know where to put your

fingers when you see each chord name. So, if someone were to say to you, “Please play an A

chord,” you would know where to position your fingers on the keyboard. There will be plenty of

wonderful music staff at training to help you through the rest of it!

Keyboard Chord Instructions