5. Arpeggios and Chords

Published by Jason Yang on June 11, 2020June 11, 2020

Arpeggios and Chords

Arpeggios

Together with scales, arpeggios can greatly enhance your playing. They are the 1^st, 3^rd, 5^th, and 8^th note of every scale.

White Key Major Arpeggios

These all have the same fingering.

• Right hand – 1, 2, 3, 5
• Left hand – 5, 3, 2, 1

Black Key Major Arpeggios

These don’t all have the same fingerings, but I do find them easier to play especially for multiple octaves.

For most of them you’ll be using the following fingering.

• Right hand – 2, 1, 2, 4
• Left hand – 2, 1, 4, 2

White Key Minor Arpeggios

To change to a minor arpeggio all we must do is drop the second note of the arpeggio by a semitone.

The fingerings are pretty much the same as for white key major arpeggios.

• Right hand – 1, 2, 3, 5
• Left hand – 5, 3, 2, 1

Black Key Minor Arpeggios

Again, the fingerings are pretty much the same as for black key major arpeggios

• Right hand – 2, 1, 2, 4
• Left hand – 2, 1, 4, 2

Chords

If we take the first three notes of an arpeggio, we get a chord. Good knowledge of these chords will help you master pop charts in no time.

Major Chords

Here’s a video I made just simply playing through all the major chords. You can see that it’s always the same intervals between the notes.

Minor Chords

To change to a minor chord all we must do is drop the second note of the chord by a semitone.