Play Your Favorite Songs with Simple Chords – Five-Finger Scales Part 4

If you know your five-finger scales in all 12 keys, you already know every major chord. That’s enough to start accompanying songs you love, and to start improvising, even as an adult beginner.

From five-finger scales to major and minor chords

The first, third, and fifth notes of a five-finger scale form a major chord. Lower the middle note and it becomes minor. With those two shapes you can play from a chord chart, since most songs use only a handful of chords.

Skip inversions for now

Inversions make chord changes smoother, but they take real time to learn and even longer to use in a song. I recommend staying in root position, with the lowest note of the chord under your thumb, until moving around the keyboard feels easy. That consistency also teaches you how harmony works.

What to do with the left hand

Play a single bass note, an open fifth, or an octave. Avoid full chords in the low register, which sound heavy. Once that’s comfortable, play the right-hand chords on the beat as you sing.

Improvising over left-hand fifths

The relationship between the root and the fifth shows up in nearly every style of music. That makes it a natural foundation for improvisation. Hold a fifth in the left hand, explore the five-finger scale in the right, add pedal, and move through a song’s chords.

Bonus: tetrachords

The first four notes of a five-finger scale form a tetrachord. Two tetrachords placed side by side make a major scale in any key.

The video demonstrates all of this at the piano with two well-known songs. Watch the full lesson above.

Key ideas in this lesson

• Five-finger scales give you every major chord; lower the middle note for minor.
• Learn root position well before worrying about inversions.
• Keep the left hand simple: a bass note, fifth, or octave.
• Left-hand fifths are an easy, reliable base for improvising.
• Two tetrachords make a major scale.

Related lessons

Five-Finger Scales series

• The Gateway Scale – Five-Finger Scales Part 1: what five-finger scales are and why they matter so much
• Fingers Don’t Listen? – Five-Finger Scales Part 2: coordination and articulation
• Transpose Any Song into All 12 Keys – Five-Finger Scales Part 3: playing familiar songs in every key

Go further

• Singing While Playing the Piano: more on accompanying yourself
• Master Intervals and Play with Confidence: the fifth, and the other intervals you’ll hear everywhere
• The Right Way to Spell Major Scales: from tetrachords to full major scales
• One Scale to Rule Them All

Free resource: Five-Finger Scales PDF