Major chords can be found in many genres of music ranging from rock to classical, with their characteristic sound setting them apart from minor and diminished chords.
To construct a major chord, start with its root note. Next, count four piano keys right (including any black ones) until you find the third note; two more keys should take you directly to the fifth tone.
Triads
Triads consist of three notes stacked one upon another and can either be major or minor in pitch. There are four triad qualities-major, minor, diminished and augmented–determined by the quality of interval between root and third and between third and fifth notes.
The initial note in a chord is known as its root and counts in half steps, including white and black keys. From there, each additional note ascends through four semitones before becoming part of its respective major third or perfect fifth series – representing their distance from its origin point.
Root note changes of a major chord have an enormous effect on its tonal center and mood, and are used across many music genres – for instance a G major triad can sound very different to a C major triad.
Inversions
Chord inversions are an excellent way to minimize hand movement when switching chords, especially when performing complex chord progressions such as I-vi-IV-V that may require shifting between various root positions.
To create a chord inversion, all it takes is switching up the order of notes in a triad. For instance, C major triad is typically played with C on bottom, E in middle and G on top; by switching this around you create a first inversion of this chord.
When learning inversions, the easiest place to start is with the root position of a chord – once comfortable playing this inversion you can move onto more challenging inversions of its melody.
Major Third
Major chords tend to sound brighter and happier than minor ones because all three intervals (root, third, fifth) are equal in length (for lack of a better term).
A major third is composed of four half steps or semitones, so starting on C and moving three intervals higher will bring you to E before increasing them further until reaching a perfect fifth (C-D-G).
Add an added sixth tone and you have created the major seventh (maj7) scale pattern, or for less common versions, the Major ninth (6add9) variation.
Perfect Fifth
The perfect fifth is an interval found in major chords. Intervals like fourths and fifths are considered “perfect”, while seconds, thirds, sixths, and sevenths use “major”.
An important distinction is made by major intervals being one half step larger than perfect intervals; therefore, C to G represents a perfect fifth, while C to F# represents an augmented fifth as it has one less half step than C to G.
Training your ear to recognize intervals can help your musical appreciation. Listening to popular pieces such as Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star or Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra (used in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey) may help. Furthermore, rock songs often showcase major chords.
Minor Third
A minor chord is the opposite of its major counterpart and follows its formula closely but with altered intervals between notes. For example, between root note (also known as root tone ) and middle tone is four half steps (minor third) while fifth tone (5th tone) can range anywhere between one half step to four half steps (major third or two half steps).
Understanding major and minor piano chords will allow you to compose more intricate songs. A song rarely uses only one type of chord; rather, they typically switch back and forth between major and minor piano chords in order to convey different emotions in the lyrics – for instance a C major chord would create happy or upbeat feelings while an A minor could add tension and sadness.