Piano Major Chords / Broken Chords

Any two or more notes sounded simultaneous are known as a chord. The most frequently used chords are triads, so-called because they consist of three distinct notes stacked vertically in thirds. The lowest-pitched tone being the root, then comes the third, and the fifth, which is the highest.

You can find bellow the illustrations of all Major Triads and also information about triads types and triads inversions.

Triad Chords: Major, Minor, Augmented, and Diminished.

Major - contain a major third and a perfect fifth interval.

Minor - comprise a minor third and a perfect fifth.

Diminished - include a minor third, and diminished fifth.

Augmented - contain a major third, and augmented fifth.

The three positions of a chord

Root position - when the root is the lowest note and the third and the fifth above it.

First inversion - when the lowest note is the third of the triad then the fifth and the root are stacked above it.

The second inversion - the lowest note is the fifth of the triad, with the root and the third above it.

A broken Chord uses all the three positions of the chord played in succession.

Major Chords

You can find bellow the illustrations of all Major Chords. You will also find the name of the notes which build up each chord.

C Major

Notes: C, E, G.

D Major

Notes:D, F#, A.

E Major

Notes: E, G#, B.

F Major

Notes: F, A, C.

G Major

Notes: G, B, D.

A Major

Notes: A, C#, E.

B Major

Notes: B, D#, F#.

Db /C# Major *

Notes: D♭, F, A.

C#, E#, G#.

Eb /D# Major *

Notes: E♭, G, B.

D#, Fx, A#.

F# /Gb Major *

Notes: G♭, B♭, D♭.

F#, A#, C#.

Ab /G Major *

Notes: A, C, E.

G#, B#, D#.

Bb /A# Major *

Notes: B, D, F.

A#, x, E#.

* These two Triads are enharmonically equivalent to one another.