How Can Learning Chords Benefit You?

Answer 1

It has become a popular tradition for beginner musicians (particularly on strummed instruments like guitar, ukulele, etc.) to begin their journey by learning to play chords based on their lead sheet symbol (C, D, and so on). There’s a good reason for this. Chords are an extremely useful short-hand for expressing harmonic language, and if you learn them quickly by rote, you can start playing songs very quickly!

The world of chords, of course, goes deeper than that. The tradition of Western music began without the concept of the “chord” as we understand it today, but rather, through the use of consonant and dissonant intervals. It is fitting, then, to begin your study of chords with the study of intervals, their quality, whether they are consonant or dissonant, and their contrapuntal use cases. Only a student with a thorough understanding of intervals will have a fully informed understanding of chords, and from there, the student can dive into the function of chords (why certain chords are used in certain contexts).

By the time you’ve gotten to this point, you not only understand the use of chords, you understand harmony itself! So, to summarize, learning chords is important because, not only are they a useful tool for learning to perform a song quickly, they are the primary vehicle of modern harmony itself, and their study will lead directly to an understanding of harmony.

Answer 2

Learning to use and understand chords is the backbone of musical composition and theory. Depending on your instrument, you may use chords as an outline for a melody/solo, or you may spend the bulk of your time playing chords to support other instruments and allow them a foundation to build upon.

The act of learning chords in regards to guitar will allow you to play the songs that interest you and even learning just 3 or 4 can be enough to start writing original music and adding your lyrics/poetry over them!

Answer 3

While learning chords can feel like a massive undertaking, it's not as bad as you might think. Plus there are some easy tricks to learning them. Once you have a good understanding of Major and Minor chords you can start to play some simple songs right away!

A quick explanation of any Major or Minor chords has you first understand half steps. From a piano's perspective — if you're looking at white keys with black keys between them - going from a white key to a black key in either direction (up or down) is a half step …

Once you know half steps you can build any Major Chord using the formula

Root (or starting note) + 4 half steps + 3 half steps for example C + E + G or G + B + D

Minor Chords would use a similar formula

Root (starting note) +3 half steps + 4 half steps for example C + Eb + G or G + Bb + D

Book a lesson with me to find out more about these chords and others AND how to apply them to your music so you can start playing your favorite songs quickly!