Piano Chord Generator

Piano chords, from triads to jazz voicings

A standard piano has 88 keys — 52 white and 36 black — covering a little over seven octaves from A0 to C8. Every key plays one fixed pitch in the equal-tempered tuning system, in which each semitone is the irrational ratio 2^(1/12) above the previous one. That mathematical compromise is what lets the piano modulate to any key without retuning; in exchange, no interval except the octave is acoustically pure. A chord is any combination of three or more notes sounded together, and the piano is the instrument where chord theory was crystallised because you can see the intervals laid out in front of you.

The building block is the triad, three notes stacked in thirds. A major triad is root + major 3rd (+4 semitones) + perfect 5th (+7): C major = C - E - G. A minor triad lowers the third by a semitone: C minor = C - Eb - G. A diminished triad lowers both the third and the fifth: C - Eb - Gb. An augmented triad raises the fifth: C - E - G#. Add a seventh and you get the four core jazz qualities — Cmaj7 (C-E-G-B), C7 dominant (C-E-G-Bb), Cm7 (C-Eb-G-Bb) and Cm7b5 half-diminished.

Voicings and inversions

Which note sits at the bottom changes the colour of a chord without changing its name. Root position places the root in the bass; first inversion puts the 3rd in the bass; second inversion the 5th. Jazz pianists rarely play root-position triads — they prefer drop-2 voicings (the second voice from the top is dropped an octave) and two-hand voicings where the left hand plays root + 7th ("shell" voicings) and the right hand adds the 3rd plus extensions (9, 11, 13). The result is harmonically rich, easy to move and avoids muddiness in the lower register.

Reading songbook chord symbols

Lead sheets and fake books use compact symbols: C for major, Cm for minor, C7 for dominant seventh, Cmaj7 for major seventh, Cdim for diminished, Caug or C+ for augmented, Csus2 and Csus4 when the third is replaced by a 2nd or 4th. A slash like C/E means C major with E in the bass (first inversion). Mastering this shorthand is the difference between staring at a chart and sight-reading it.

Method, repertoire and apps

Classical technique is built on Hanon, Czerny, Pischna and the Brahms 51 Exercises; Romantic giants Beethoven and Chopin remain the core repertoire, with Debussy opening the door to impressionist harmony. In jazz, Bill Evans codified the modern quartal voicings, Bud Powell invented bebop comping, and Oscar Peterson and Herbie Hancock set the bar for technique and reharmonisation. Brazil produced Tom Jobim, whose Bossa Nova voicings are still the gold standard for "rich but never crowded", along with Egberto Gismonti and Hermeto Pascoal. Modern learners often supplement with apps like Piano Marvel, Yousician or Flowkey for real-time MIDI feedback.

FAQ

Which hand plays the chord? In most pop and rock arrangements the left hand plays a bass note or root-and-fifth pattern while the right hand voices the chord. In jazz the workload is split — left plays a shell (root + 7th), right plays 3rd + extensions.

Does the inversion really matter? Yes. The bass note dictates the harmonic gravity of a passage; voice-leading smoothness almost always comes from choosing the right inversion so that adjacent chords share common tones.

Where should a beginner start? Major triads in the key of C, since they use only white keys: C, F, G and their relative minors Am, Dm, Em. That single set already covers thousands of pop songs.

What is a sus chord? A "suspended" chord replaces the 3rd with the 2nd (sus2) or the 4th (sus4). Because the 3rd is absent, the chord is ambiguous between major and minor and tends to resolve back to the plain triad.