You can easily create six more chords from the diatonic chords of the previous Piano Hack.
The formula was
-
- major, minor, minor for steps 1,2, and 3, and
- major, major, minor for steps 4, 5 and 6.
You can create minor chords from major chords by just lowering the major third by a half step, and major chords from minor chords by raising the minor third by a half step as we did in Piano Hack #3. This means that you can take the six chords from above and do just that to create six more chords in an istant.
C major
lower the third by a half step, and you get
C minor
D minor
raise the third by a half step, and you get
D major
E minor
raise the third by a half step, and you get
E major
F major
lower the third by a half step, and you get
F minor
G major
lower the third by a half step, and you get
G minor
A minor
raise the third by a half step, and you get
A major
With this simple trick you now have 12 chords at your disposal. And just as the first six chords, the six new chords are among the most common chords used in popular music for both guitarists and piano players! So make sure you know these 12 chords and their inversions, which will be covered in the next Piano Hack.
There are more than just these 12 major and minor chords as well, such as Ab major, or Db minor, for example. If you want to learn all major and minor chords, check out Piano Chord Charts, or the Playing Piano with Chords book, where all chords are explained.