As you make progress, you will find more ways of altering the outcome. A chord can be played by pressing down all the relevant keys simultaneously or each at a time. When you know which notes that belong to a chord, you can play it in several ways. C7, C9, C11), they are adding notes using intervals from the root of the chords with seventh, ninth and eleventh degrees. The Cm7 adds one note to Cm, the seventh in the C minor scale. The Cmaj7 chord adds one note to C, the seventh in the C major scale. Building chordsĪ good way to learn chords on the piano is to be familiar with how they are constructed. In addition, chords with six or seven notes also exist. There are triads (three notes), four-note (sometimes called tetrachords) and five-note chords. One thing that differ among chords is how many notes that are included. There are lots of different chords that can be organized in different groups and categories. A chord is a group of notes that can be played together and function as the harmony in music.