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anyone know how piano chords/tabs work?

P

phatj

Golden Member
I want to learn this in the next few days... but not sure how these work...
I have a "chord dictionary" that has dots over the keys that are pushed... so do I just push them in succession? lol... I wont have access to a piano until later this evening, so help before I head to the piano room would be nice. I pasted the "tabs" below...

What are fmaj7 and Am7? are these something special? I'm assuming I just push the CFG's one time... if you can kind of type-teach this i would sooooo appreciate it.


C Fmaj7 G Am7 F G C
I set out on a narrow way, many years ago,
C Fmaj7 G Am7 F G C
Hoping I would find true love, along the broken road,
Am7 G
But I got lost a time or two,
F C Dm G
wipe my brow and kept pushing through,
C Fmaj7 G Am7 F G C
I couldn't see how every sign, pointed straight to you,
 
Usually you would play a chord as one. I.E. all three (or more) keys at the same time. Sometimes, you may want to change it up a bit and play them in succession. It is whatever you want it to sound like or however fast the music is playing.

Also this site shows the different positions of chords. I.E. F major, F7, F major seventh, etc... Look it over.
 
I'm pretty sure that piano chords for the most part are played at the same time as BrainDamaged (it's easier on my mind to type it that way) said. It's not like guitar where you'll find yourself going in some sort of order about half the time and then palying them all at once the other half.
 
C = CEG
Fmaj7 (F Major w/ 7th) = FACE
G = GBD
Am7 (A minor w/ 7th) = ACEG
F = FAC
G = GBD
C = CEG

Those are the notes of each chord, just play all the notes of the chord at the same time to give you the sound. That's a gorgeous song by the way, I'll admit that I like Rascal Flatts :guiltypleasure;

edit - okay, so next time I'll just google a chord finder and link it for you instead of actually thinking out the chords
 
Originally posted by: amoeba
piano chords are played at the same time unless if there is a little sguigly there.
Click to expand...

Not always, if you want to variate the way you are playing, you may play them one note at a time. I do it all the time when finishing a song or adding a different sound.
 
Originally posted by: DainBramaged
Originally posted by: amoeba
piano chords are played at the same time unless if there is a little sguigly there.
Click to expand...

Not always, if you want to variate the way you are playing, you may play them one note at a time. I do it all the time when finishing a song or adding a different sound.
Click to expand...

Is there a special style of playing where the chords are always played each key successively? Or is that just when you become Ray Charles?
 
Originally posted by: aplefka
Originally posted by: DainBramaged
Originally posted by: amoeba
piano chords are played at the same time unless if there is a little sguigly there.
Click to expand...

Not always, if you want to variate the way you are playing, you may play them one note at a time. I do it all the time when finishing a song or adding a different sound.
Click to expand...

Is there a special style of playing where the chords are always played each key successively? Or is that just when you become Ray Charles?
Click to expand...

the way you have it written i would imagine you play them as chords with all the notes struck at the same time, the way you would strum a chord on the guitar.

to play them otherwise would require sheet music to really understand what the composer intended.
 
Originally posted by: kyparrish
C = CEG
Fmaj7 (F Major w/ 7th) = FACE
Click to expand...

The notes are right, but it should be clarified that Fmaj7 is [F Major w/ major 7th] - a major 3rd above the 5th. Simply saying F Major w/ 7th is a dominant chord and would be written F7.
 
Originally posted by: aplefka
Originally posted by: DainBramaged
Originally posted by: amoeba
piano chords are played at the same time unless if there is a little sguigly there.
Click to expand...

Not always, if you want to variate the way you are playing, you may play them one note at a time. I do it all the time when finishing a song or adding a different sound.
Click to expand...

Is there a special style of playing where the chords are always played each key successively? Or is that just when you become Ray Charles?
Click to expand...

Not really a special style of playing, it's just that playing a three note chord will sound quite repetitive after playing it a few times. Sometimes I will play the tenth (CGE) combined with an octave (CGC) sometimes I will play the CGE one note at a time. All depends on the sound that he wants.
 
Originally posted by: SuperPickle
Originally posted by: kyparrish
C = CEG
Fmaj7 (F Major w/ 7th) = FACE
Click to expand...

The notes are right, but it should be clarified that Fmaj7 is [F Major w/ major 7th] - a major 3rd above the 5th. Simply saying F Major w/ 7th is a dominant chord and would be written F7.
Click to expand...

Sorry, thought my old professors said that if you just said "7th," then "major" was implied, and that you only needed to say minor if it was a minor 7th.

Yup, if it was F7, obviously it's obviously a dominant, and if it's Fmin7 then, the 7th would be a half step lower.

it's all coming back
 
Originally posted by: kyparrish
Originally posted by: SuperPickle
Originally posted by: kyparrish
C = CEG
Fmaj7 (F Major w/ 7th) = FACE
Click to expand...

The notes are right, but it should be clarified that Fmaj7 is [F Major w/ major 7th] - a major 3rd above the 5th. Simply saying F Major w/ 7th is a dominant chord and would be written F7.
Click to expand...

Sorry, thought my old professors said that if you just said "7th," then "major" was implied, and that you only needed to say minor if it was a minor 7th.

Yup, if it was F7, obviously it's obviously a dominant, and if it's Fmin7 then, the 7th would be a half step lower.

it's all coming back
Click to expand...

You're memory is right - I just wanted to clarify for others.

Common notations:
Fmaj7 = maj 3rd, maj 7
F7 = maj 3rd, min 7
Fmin7 = min 3rd, min7
Fmin+7 = min 3rd, maj 7 <----only used if you're really cool. 😛
 
to an above poster, yes this is for valentine's day... and broken road IS an amazing song, no shame in liking a little rascal flatts... but this is harder than i thought it would be!!! back downstairs to the piano room now....
 
i think maybe the tabs suck or im just doing this completely wrong... doesn't sound like broken road
 
A for effort dude, but seriously--if you have to ask questions like these now, you're not going to make that song sound halfway decent by Valentine's Day. Play to your strengths, and practice for next year or her birthday or something.
 
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