Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum What is the purpose of learning a song's chords?

I know beginners often start with learning a song's chords. Is this because the chords are a song's basic structure? I thought melody is a song's structure, but melody consists of top notes, not the chords. Or are chords the rhythm or something else entirely?

I like learning the chord progressions (just the general outline, usually not bar by bar) as I see it as the foundation that the melody will sit upon and it helps me play the piece. It helps in my reading the music as I will read the chord and not each note (or at least I try to). Much like when I read a word I don't need to look at every single letter on its own, but the word as a whole. I also find it good for memory and recovering during a performance. If you forget the exact notes but know that the chord is C+, then just play CEG and it will sound somewhat similar.

If I can make a lame analogy (and I'm pretty sure that I can *grin*), think about building a house. In order to build a good house you must first lay a strong foundation. That's what the chords are. They are the foundation of the song. They are the harmony that support the melody. They make the song sound more full and lush, and pleasing to the ear.

Rhythm on the other hand is about timing. The rhythm of the song is showing you how long you hold each note, it's duration.

Melody, Harmony, Rhythm. Those are the key ingredients. You need them all.

Also, you'll find later that chords occur in patterns, sequences that occur over and over in many different songs. When you understand the chord structure of one song, and learn another song with a similar chord structure, it can help you learn the new song much better/faster if you understand that structure. Instead of just memorizing a bunch of apparently random notes, you learn to see the structure and it makes much more clear to you.

Anyway, hope that makes sense.

Personally I learned my chords outside the context of music first, by my teachers instruction. I feel like my teacher taught me a bunch of basic things that are all snowballing into each other recently. I felt like I was just learning things to learn them... Realistically they were very useful I just wasn't putting them to practical use till a bit later. But whats happening now that I know my basic chords is that I see actual chords in the left hand (they generally have to be pretty basic for a quick identification). This frees up my head to not think about note for note... higher level of abstraction while reading. Lets me focus on dynamics whereas not to long ago I could pay just enough attention to the notes while going really slow during a sightread or a trial run. I'm not sure what "chord structure" means, but I do know the chords and can read them a lot faster knowing the chord vs reading each individual note.

As mentioned already ...

Music = Melody, Harmony & Rhythm (and don't forget expression)

Melody alone is quite naked.

Chords provide harmony. Often your melody is part of the underlying chord and contributes to the harmony. It is often and usually on top, but not always.

There are lots of reasons why you may want to learn about chords. The basic rules to build them are straight forward and easy to learn. They will also provide an excellent foundation and gateway to vast topics of theory.

Thanks. If I understand correctly, you would never perform a song by playing just the chords alone, but if you wanted, you could perform a song with just the melody and no chords. Correct?

Also, are chords usually left hand while melody is usually right hand?

I'm just trying to get a handle on the general concepts as I'm a real beginner right now.

Two reasons:

It is much faster to recognize a C major chord in 1st inversion and have your fingers land on the chord like you've practiced a thousand times, rather than think hmm, gotta put 5 on E, should G be 4 or 3? reach for C with 1, no wait I should have used 4 on E, oh crap.

Secondly, when you think in the key and the chord you recognize your wrong notes faster and avoid learning the piece with errors that are hard to fix.

These are all mis-guided questions that are vague and have no "real" answer. You can perform a song however you want. The melody is typically the recognizable portion of the song. The chords are what make it sound more full and interesting. Go to your keyboard and play "mary have a little lamb" and you'll hear it sounds dull, but recognizable. As an example of a melody that ISN'T the top note... try play c major d minor e minor f major to play the song "lean on me".. hum it in your head and you'll be able to play it. Then as an experiment you can play it without the chords... sooo.... C D E F. You can tell it sounds far less full and "interesting" but both ways you can still recognize the actual song via the melody. You aren't going to really understand these things until you get on your keys and try it out for yourself tho IMO.

Yes, learning chords is part of the song. And yes, you can play the melody without playing any chords. If you think of a song that you like, and hum it, generally you're humming the melody line. The melody is the part of the song that you know. However, as a pianist you don't always have to play the melody. For example if you were singing, your voice could be providing the melody. Or if you were playing with other musicians, another instrument could supply the melody. In that case you might just be playing the chords (although there are other things you can do to embellish them as well).

Usually the melody is played with the right hand while the chords are played with the left hand. But sometimes that's reversed. There's a good example of this in the 1st alfred's adult method book. I forget which piece it is, but they have you play a piece with the usual melody in the right hand chords in the left hand way; and then the next piece is a different arrangement (version) of the song that has you reverse that.

It is certainly part of it. I think just the chords might be a bit odd, but in some pieces it might still sound nice, though I don't think you would ever play it that way. Just melody would be dry. That said, if you just play the melody, people would recognize the piece if they already know it; if you just play everything but the melody, it may not be that easily recognized.

As for left hand/right hand, that is usually the case, but it can be the other way round. Or with pieces written for one hand then both must be played with one hand. Perhaps better to say the melody is played with whatever hand/finger makes it easiest to play.

Thank you all for the clear answers! They really help me as I'm temporarily without a music teacher and on my own in the meantime.

Melody: part of song you hum
Rhythm: part you tap out with your foot
Harmony: chords that support and embellish melody

For me, my development was very stagnant until I started looking at harmony and chord progressions. That might be because it's my favorite part of the music.


Enjoy

And in jazz, there's a sense that the chord progression _is_ the song.

Melody -- that's something you improvise. But the chord progression is sacred.

Chords are very important if you want to play in a band setting, or really any setting where there are other instruments. It's very likely other instruments will cover the melody (ie. vocals if you have a singer). In this situation piano's job is often to just play the chord progression.

In church for example you often get band settings where a pianist will come in with fairly extensive classical training, and will be given sheet music, but really the worst thing they can do in that situation (ie. assuming other singers, lead guitarist, bassist) is play the sheet music. Just knowing basic triads and inversions goes a long long way in such an instance.

You can absolutely play songs just with chords, for example this is how guitarists often play songs. It works great if you (or someone else) can sing along.

edit: I read this thread more carefully and I'm really just repeating fizikisto! Anyway, the song you're talking about in Alfred's One is When the Saints go Marching in I think.

Hey Alex, great questions! Why learn to play chords? Well, firstly I'd say because you have 10 fingers plus an instrument which is capable of playing chords. When someone invents a trombone which can play chords, I may look into that too.

Beginners probably learn or already know (meaning they can sing or hum) how the melody and rhythm go ... then solve the puzzle involving harmony in the key they want to play in. I would say chords are not rhythm; you can play a tune using one finger, but if you play the correct notes without the correct rhythm, some listeners may not recognize what you are playing.

Everyone probably hears music a little differently depending on how they are wired up. In the vid below I'd say the rhythm is the most important element in her performance followed by the harmony and then the melody. In someone else's performance, I might flip those three elements upside down ... but listen how important the harmony and rhythm are to this tune:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXMg6iPmSw8

I suspect you are going to be one heck of a good piano player some day.

- thanks for that - wonderful.

You're welcome ... you never know what might motivate a beginner to look at what he has in his hands!

YES, Rerun. I love her stuff. Thanks for bringing it up. I think I'm right on the cusp of being ready to do some of that

Cathy

You're welcome ... I hope you will post a recording 'cause I'd love to hear it.