Are you wondering what would be the reasons why you should learn chords on the piano?
Let me tell you.
I spent years studying piano with teachers. Only classical music.
And not once I have been taught how to play chords on the piano. Never.
That’s a shame.
It is like you were taught to use only the black keys on the keyboard, forgetting about using the white ones!
You would miss more than half of your possibilities on the piano. You could even just learn chords and nothing else and still be able to play a lot of things.
I don’t want you to spend years before realizing that.
Let’s see 5 reasons why!
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Table of Contents
5 reasons to learn how to play chords on the piano
1. You will be able to play thousands of songs easily
Knowing how to play chords on the piano will open up a whole new world for you. You will be able to play thousands and thousands of songs.
Think about all the songs you hear on the radio, on Spotify or YouTube. They are all (almost) based on some chord progression, that a sequence or several sequences, of chords.
In pop music for example, a good part of the songs are only using 3 or 4 different chords. But even in blues or rock.
This means that you can learn lots of new songs in no time and thus extend your repertoire. It would be a shame not to benefit from this.
Even more than that.
Once you know how to form chords, you will be able to play ‘on the fly’ songs you never played before.
Imagine for one second that you are with a few friends, or some family and there is a piano in the room. Maybe it is at your place.
Someone, knowing that you play the piano, ask you to play some song you don’t know. Sounds familiar?
I don’t why, but as soon as there is a musician in a room, people assume that she/he knows all the songs of the world.
Anyways.
You may feel quite embarassed because you don’t know how to play this song.
What if you knew how to play chords, you took your phone to find the chords (soon on this website!), and start to play it.
Your friends will start to sing (out of tune, but whatever!) with you and you will have a great time instead of ruminating your inability of playing a song for the rest of the night.
If you don’t know yet how to play chords, you can learn in this article.
2. You will understand better what you play
Playing chords will help you to develop a better understanding of music.
Music that you play or listen to. Even classical music.
Indeed, chords are giving you the harmonic context of a song. You will understand the connection between the melody and the accompaniment.
3. You will be able to play accompaniment
Maybe you sing or play another instrument. Playing chords on the piano is a great way to make an accompaniment for yourself.
But also for others. You may join a band and bring some harmonic support to their song. You can easily collaborate with other musicians.
Again, it opens up your opportunities as a musician.
4. You will be able to improvise
Playing even a few chords will allow you to start to improvise easily.
Yes improvisation. It is often regarded as something out of reach except for very advanced pianists.
The truth is that you can start improvising at a very early stage.
Even children when they see a piano will do some sort of (rough) improvisation by pressing a bit randomly the keys.
Start to play a chord progression with your left hand. Then let your right hand play freely on the scale from the key of the chord progression.
This is a simple way to enjoy playing while practicing the piano.
It will also develop your creativity and musicality.
5. You will create your own music easily
Related to the previous one, you can create your own music starting with a few chords.
Again, you may think that only experienced musician can create music.
I don’t agree at all.
Of course, music composition can be very complex and I admire the work of many composers. But it can be very simple as well.
As soon as you can play a few chords and a few notes together, you can create a song. It can start by improvising on a chord progression.
Conclusion
I believe that playing chords should be part of the set of technique you must have as a musician.
Your musical education won’t be complete without that.
It is not complicated at all and much rewarding.
I created a guide to learn how to form the most useful chords here, you should find all you need.
Go and play chords now, you will like it!
