3 Ways to Use Piano Chords for Beginners to Play Bangin’ Songs (Videos)

Today, we’re gonna talk about how to use the piano chords for beginners (in the most basic form) to play the songs that you’ve always wanted to play.

When I started out playing the piano at the age of 7, I went through a formal piano lesson where I had to learn the theory, the scales, and classical pieces in order to pass a grade. Little did I know about playing songs with the piano chords.

Going through a formal lesson sometimes can get a little bit rigid where you need to learn everything in accordance with the syllabus.

Don’t get me wrong though, there’s nothing wrong with that at all.

However, at that time I was only in Grade 1 and had a pretty limited understanding of what I kind of thing I can do with the piano.

I couldn’t wait to start playing my kind of song instead of “I’m a Little Teapot”.

Thankfully, my lovely teacher understood that and thought me on the sideline on how to use piano chords for beginners to play the songs I enjoyed.

So in today’s post, I want to show you 3 ways to use the piano chords for beginners to play your kind of music.

But first….

Why Play Songs With Piano Chords?

Here’s what playing piano chords can do for you:

• You don’t need to know how to read notes or piano scores to play the songs that you love.
• You can play ANY songs you like as an accompaniment to your singing or with any musical instruments.
• You can play ANY songs at a reasonably short period of time.
• You can create or write songs.
• You can play songs with ANY keys that you want or request to.
• You can improvise with your own style of playing.

For those reasons, I strongly believe that playing songs with the piano chords is great for people who want to play beautiful songs, to explore, to create or to improvise.

If you’re reading this article, I’d assume that you’re a beginner but you’re dying to play some bangin’ songs already.

I want to share with you how to do just that with 3 simple ways using the piano chords for beginners. Here’s what we are going to do today my friend:

1. Play songs with the basic piano chords
2. Play songs with the broken chords
3. Play songs with combined chords

You need different ways of playing a song because you want to create different mood or emotion to a song.

For instance, imagine how boring and dull it would be if we could only play songs with the broken chords.

In all my demos that you’ll be seeing shortly, I use the piano chords for beginners known as the triad chord.

It is great for beginners and you’ll see what amazing things this basic piano chords can do.

The triad chord is a chord built on 3 notes of thirds where the notes of the chord consist of the root, 3rd and 5th note of its scale.

It is called 3 notes of thirds because there are 3 notes in a triad chord and the interval between each note is third.

If you haven’t gotten this piano chords chart, I recommend that you download them now.

This chart shows you all of the piano chords for beginners that you can use in your practice and it’s FREE, yo!

If you’re totally new to playing the piano, I also strongly recommend that you check out my free course which teaches you the 4 fundamentals of music and then watch the video on how to play all of the piano chords for beginners in less than 10 minutes. I feel that these will greatly help you to understand what we’re doing here today.

But if you’re all geared up and ready to go, then let’s dive in champ!

1. How to Play Songs with the Piano Chords for Beginners

As I mentioned earlier on, the piano chord for beginners in its most basic form is known as the triad chord. It consists of 3 notes with the interval 3rd in between each note.

However, this doesn’t mean that we can only use 3 notes to play the chords.

We can play more than 3 notes as long as those notes are produced from the triad chord. For example, the triad chord of the C major consists of the notes C-E-G but we can play the chord as C-E-G-C too.

There are many ways that you can play the triad chords for a song and I’ll be showing some of them in my video below.

Now, the most common way to play the piano chords is by playing the chord with your right hand while your left-hand plays the bass note or keynote of the chord.

So, this is how to rock these piano chords….

Listen, I know it seems like a lot to take in but I’ve got you covered buddy. Here’s what you should do right after this.

Let’s get started.

1. Perfect the piano chords: Rhythms are super important but first, try to play the chords correctly and do get familiar with where the notes are on the piano.

Worry about getting the perfect rhythm later.

Perfect the chords by making sure that you’re playing that 3 notes of the triad chord as ONE sound and not as multiple sounds.

You must hit that 3 notes simultaneously and release them at the same time.

2. Start with easy keys and chord progression: I recommend that you start with some easy keys and piano chords progression like the ones that I’ve shown you in the video (C major, A minor, F major and G major).

Dude, this chord progression is used in hundreds of songs that you know. Aim for those without any key signatures in them for now.

Hey! Come to think of it, you can already play at least ONE song! Woohoo! If you want to start playing a nice song now, I’ve got some prepared for ya.

These piano chords sheets are prepared in such that you know exactly when to change chords and where the rhythms begin and end. Click the button below to get yours for free:

3. Keep playing the chords: Keep playing the same chord progression with the simplest formation where your left-hand plays the bass notes of the keys and your right-hand plays the triad chords.

Repeat till like 1000x or until you feel like you can do this with your eyes closed (*wink).

4. Get the rhythm right: When you are absolutely sure with what you are doing, use the same chord formation but this time, get the rhythm right. Use the bass note as the beat to your rhythm.

5. Add interesting rhythms: Introduce different rhythms to either your left-hand or right-hand. At this point, you should already feel the rhythms flow in you as though they are on autopilot.

6. Explore: Finally, experiment and explore! Add more notes, play it up or play it down the octaves, do what you want and be creative!

2. How to Play Songs with The Broken Chords

So, what is a broken chord?

I want you to think of the songs Someone Like You by Adele or Secret by One Republic. Notice how different they are as opposed to The Scientist by Coldplay for instance?

Yeap, you got it. Someone Like You or Secret sounds more linear-like in comparison to The Scientist which sounds more chord-y (if there’s such word). That linear-like sound is the broken chord, my friend.

The broken chords are notes from the triad chords or inverted chords which are played one note after the other instead of being played simultaneously.

So, the broken chord is not another new construction of piano chords but rather notes that are taken from the triad chords or inverted chords.

Now, I must say that playing the broken chords is more challenging to compare with playing the triad chords.

This is because playing the broken chords require you to play the chords with good hands coordination and it’d seem like there are so many things going on at the same time.

But I know that you’re a rockstar! You soooo can do this!

If done well, the broken chord will sound like just one continuous chord. Here’s how we do it…

We’ve got the game plan for playing songs with the triad chords, of course, I won’t leave you high and dry without a plan for the broken chords.

Here’s what you’re going to do:

Let’s begin.

1. Start with left-hand: Again, ignore the rhythms for now. Play the broken chords properly starting with your left hand. I know playing with your left-hand is quite challenging especially if you’re right-handed.

But trust me, you can do it! I know you can! Put all your thoughts into your left-hand. Bzzzzzzzzztttt! Focus HARD on each of the note that you’re playing.

2. Play with right-hand: Now stop playing with your left-hand and play the same broken chords with your right-hand. This might be a breeze for you if you’re right-handed. Make each note counts.

3. Combine: Play chords on both hands as though they are one continuous chord. Try to imagine that the chord that you are playing with both hands are played by only one hand if that makes any sense. It shall sound like one continuous wave.

4. Get the rhythm right: Play each note as slow as you can to make sure that each note has the same length and consistency. Think of a healthy heartbeat. They’re beating at a consistent rhythm. So shall be your playing.

5. Play chords ascending and descending using right-hand: As you can see from my demo, at one part, I played the chords ascending and descending using my right-hand. For example with the key of C major, I played C-E-G-E-C repetitively.

6. Explore: Stretch your wings and fly! Stretch your fingers to reach more notes and try to explore and experiment with what you’ve learned.

3. How to Play Songs with Combined Piano Chords

It’s totally awesome to be able to combine the broken chords with the non-broken ones (*wink) to play some crazy songs. Again, it depends on the kind of mood and emotion that you want to bring to a song.

In this video, I will show you how to combine both triad chords and broken chords and playing them with both hands.

This is probably the hardest thing to do but then again, it’s you! You got it! I’m betting on you! So, here we go…

I know I know, information overloaded eh? Breath in. You don’t have to accomplish all of these in one day. Take it one step at a time k?

Here’s what to do:

1. Play triad chords with left-hand: You’re probably amazing at playing the triad chords with your right-hand now, but now you gotta do it with your left hand.

Your fingers may seem like they have minds of their own, but you got to refocus all your energy on making sure that they listen to you now.

Repeat until you can only hear ONE sound from one chord.

2. Play broken chords with right-hand: I’m sure you are a pro now in playing the triad chords with your right-hand, but now, challenge yourself by playing them one note after another as broken chords.

3. Get the rhythm right: Play both chords with both hands and this time, work on your rhythms. Use the chords on your left-hand to give you the timings and then fill in the rhythms with your right hand just like the first part of my video.

4. Switch them up: Now play the broken chords with your left-hand and the triad chords with your right-hand. I know, it’s not very easy, but take it slow ok buddy. You’ll get there in a bit.

5. Get the rhythm right: This time, use the chords on your right hand as a guide to the timings and use the broken chords with your left hand to play the rhythms.

The trick to getting the rhythms right each time is to play the chords super slow, double or triple slower than how they should be played.

6. Mix them up: Rock both piano chords with both hands and mix them up like there’s no tomorrow yo!

Alright, my friends! I truly hope you that you are now better than you were before reading this post and that this post opens up your eyes to the different possibilities of how you can play songs with these piano chords for beginners.

Got questions? Leave a comment! Let’s have coffee and chat.