Beginner Piano Songs - What Are The Basic Beginner Piano Chords to Hound Dog By Elvis Presley?

A very simple piano song for complete beginners to learn to play is Hound Dog by Elvis Presley.

It is written in a 12 bar blues sequence and perfect for a beginner to Piano. The good thing about learning a 12 bar blues is that it is the basis many different songs, so once you have learned the structure of one song, you will be able to play any other song that is written in a blues progression.

Quite a few of Elvis Presley's songs are based around a 12 bar blues, and even though they are quite simple they sound very effective. People across the world love the style of music, and it is what Elvis is renowned for.

Hound Dog was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, writing this song as just teenagers. The first artist to record this song was Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton in 1952, and it actually became a number one hit for her, and was by far her biggest success.

Elvis decided to cover the popular hit after hearing it at a concert in Las Vegas in 1956, and then recorded it at the same time as his single Don't Be Cruel. They were both released at the same time. It quickly rose to top spot all over the US, and was number one for 11 consecutive weeks.

In 1958 it became the only third record to sell more than 3 million copies, which was an amazing success. The song has featured in the Elvis Presley Biopic in 2005, in 1994 it was featured in the popular film Forest Gump, and most recently it was sung by Eddie Clendening, portraying Elvis Presley, in the Broadway musical "Million Dollar Quartet."

So what are the basic beginner chords to Hound Dog?

Hound Dog is written in a very simple key of C Major.

It contains the basic piano chords C Major, F Major and G Major, which are easy beginner piano chords and you can use a simple blues scale riff to start and end the song.

You can also add interest and put life into the song by using a glissando, which means gliding up and down the keyboard.

A nice way to start the song is by starting on C chord, 3 octaves above where you want to play the song, so one octave above middle C, and then do a glissando down to your starting note.

The rhythm uses fast chords in your right hand with a simple three note bass section in the left hand. It uses the chords mentioned above so when playing the C Section you would play C E G in the left hand using a blues rhythm.

To finish the song, you can play some notes around the C Blues scale - C Eb F G & Bb maybe, which will end it very nicely on the piano.

Why not have a go at learning some simple songs on piano that are perfect for beginners. You can also teach yourself a very easy song by watching these Beginner Piano Song Videos.

Don't just play piano - perform piano by learning a repertoire of 12 Easy Piano Sing Songs that are perfect for when they ask the question...'so what can you play?'

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The Most Common Chords a Pianist Will Use and Some Common Chord Patterns for You to Try at Home

As a beginner it is really important to learn popular chords that you will often come across when playing music on the piano.

Chords are very important when it comes to learning piano, as they are present in every song you will play. With piano you have two different clefs - one being the treble clef which is normally played with your right hand and are usually the higher notes above middle C.

Then you have the bass clef, which is normally played with your left hand and are notes below middle C.

Chords won't always be played as a single unit i.e. 3 notes struck together, but what you will very often find is they will be split up between the clefs, so you might have for example C Major Chord, but the E out of the chord is being played in the treble clef as the melody, and the C and G are being played lower in the bass clef.

This is why it is so important to learn all chords and become confident playing them as it will help your musical development if you understand where the music is developed from.

Chords consist of three individual notes but when struck together sound great. Chords are used in many ways. They are also present in most music you will play and perform and so learning piano chords will give you the opportunity to play many styles.

Learning chords is a way of opening up performing opportunities for you. It will allow you the freedom to accompany singers, or you may be a singer yourself, so it will give you the chance to accompany yourself.

You may also at some point wish to play together with other musicians in a band so chords will also come in handy for this.

The most popular types of chords you will come across are Major and Minor Chords. Major are often described as the happy sounding chords and Minor are described as the sad sounding chords. These common chords are found in most styles of music, but most commonly found in pop rock and classical music.

Below are two formulas to help you work out both Major and Minor Chords. It is a simple formula to follow, but will give you the information you need to work out any major or minor chords: -

To work out a major chord, you need to select a note in which you want the chord for. This is called your root note. Then moving up the piano you will climb four notes including white and black notes, and this will work out your middle note. From here you will climb a further three steps to reach your third note. You will then have formed a chord.

If we use C major as an example, your root note will be C, your Middle note will be E and your last note will be a G. So you have three notes C E & G which are then turned into C major chord.

Try working out some other chords yourself. Do them in patterns that fit, so try working out C Major, F Major and G Major. Then play these one after another and see how great they sound.

To work out minor chords, you select a your root note. Then you climb three steps and you will reach your middle note, and a further four steps to reach your last note for the chord. For example A minor Chord would have A as your root note, C as your middle note and E as your last note. So your three notes for A Minor chord are A C E.

Try working out some other minor chords yourself. Common minor pattern are D Minor a minor and E minor.

Use the information above to learn all your chords thoroughly, and write down the two easy formulas so you have them to hand should you need to work out another chord.

The correct fingering to play chords on piano in your right hand is 1 3 5. One is your thumb, and 5 will be your little finger.

The correct fingering to follow for your left hand with piano chords is 5 3 1. Five is your little finger and one is your thumb.

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There are some great free courses to teach anyone from complete beginners to advanced pianists to Learn How to Play Piano. A great way for beginners to learn is to start off with some really Easy Piano Songs which will get you started and help build that all important confidence.

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10 Tips to Help You Learn Guitar Chords

1. Keep persisting.

It is cliche, yet it is true-practice makes perfect, especially when you want to learn guitar chords. You won't get anywhere by giving up after a week or a month. The guitar is one of those instruments which requires utmost effort from its players; but that effort is surely rewarded in the end. Rest assured that it is perfectly normal not to get things right on the first try. One of the worst times to give up would be after learning the correct finger position and strumming a few times. Resist the temptation to throw in the towel and instead, keep practicing. It's only a matter of time before you finally see results.

2. Constantly visualize.

It is a well-known fact that the mind plays a decisive role in the failure or success of our actions. Don't underestimate the power of visualization. Before you even form a chord, visualize in your mind where each finger should be positioned even before you play it. One of the most effective ways to switch chords efficiently is to look at where your fingers are at the moment and thinking about where they need to be. Basic chords usually involve the most common notes so there will certainly be times when you won't need to move your fingers that often.

3. Take it slow.

Don't try to take on too much all at once. If you find yourself struggling with learning guitar chords, the problem may lie with the chord progressions you are choosing to work with. Start with simpler ones, and then move on from there. Take your time with changing chords and understand that putting too much pressure on yourself at the outset may backfire, discourage you, and ultimately, cause you to quit. Repetition is a useful tool for preparing yourself for more sophisticated chord changes.

4. Develop finger strength.

If you truly wish to become not just more adept at learning guitar chords, but guitar playing in general, you need to realize the importance of developing finger strength. The value of this exercise will reveal itself in time. Some of the best ways to do this would be to engage in finger exercises such as finger weights, doing finger press-ups, and even pressing down hard on guitar strings. Get creative and do what you think will help in making your fingers stronger and chord playing easier.

5. Avoid looking at your hands.

In the beginning, looking down at your hands as you learn guitar chords might seem second nature to you. However, this is an issue that needs to be corrected as finger positioning should be something that you become accustomed to without the need to look at your hands.

6. Practice several chords simultaneously.

While some of the foremost experts and sources on guitar playing might tell you that practicing one chord at a time is actually the best route to take, when you learn guitar chords on the contrary, this is actually not the best way to learn. In order to learn more quickly and more effectively, practice playing several chords all at once. In that way, you are more likely to retain the information in your head as opposed to just having one chord reverberating in your memory. This will also be useful when it comes to recalling finger positions and chord progressions.

7. Use your pinkie finger.

The pinkie finger is oftentimes the most neglected finger in learning guitar chords. While the tendency of most beginning guitar players might be to push the pinkie finger aside while not in use, this shouldn't be the case. It is essential that all fingers stay close to the fret board even when not in use. You will find that picking up this habit will prove useful as you learn higher-level chords in the future.

8. Get familiar with the root note.

When learning guitar chords, I cannot emphasize enough how critical it is to know what the root note of a chord is. In simple terms, a root note is the bass note of a chord. Basically, the root note tells you which string you should begin strumming from. For instance, a G major is formed by the three notes G, B and D. Therefore, the root note of the G major is the note G.

9. Pick the chord that needs to be picked.

As a beginning guitar player when you learn guitar chords, if you are hearing dull or flat notes within the chords you are playing, the problem is probably caused by a fingering issue. Don't waste endless hours playing a certain chord until it comes out right but instead, begin to pick the chord. This way you are able to identify the problem more accurately. From there, remedy the problem by applying more pressure on the particular string that needs it or adjusting your finger position to produce better-sounding notes.

10. Make use of all 5 senses.

This tip may seem irrelevant, but some of the world's greatest guitar players swear by it. To learn guitar chords effectively, it is useful to look at it from every possible angle. Use your eyes to look at a chord chart, watch someone play the chords, use your ears to hear the chord being played, and visualize yourself playing the chords yourself. Obviously, a keen sense of touch is vital to the art of guitar playing. Utilizing all 5 senses is sure to be helpful to learn guitar chords.

If you would like to learn guitar chords, then visit our site at http://www.guitarchordsforbeginnerstips.com/ to get more information, and learn guitar chords once and for all.

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Great Guitar Chords For Beginners - The C Chord

Many people want to learn how to play guitar but might think that all of those strings and frets are just too much to tackle. Fear not, because with just a few easy guitar chords for beginners, you can be playing many of your favorite songs in a very short amount of time!

Today we're going to discuss the open C chord which is one of the standard guitar chords for any player. Just for review, if you are a beginner, here is the basic layout of the guitar.

Every standard guitar has six strings on it and they are tuned usually (or standard tuning) to the corresponding notes:

E, A, D, G, B, E

Along with normal music notation, you can also use a numbering system known as guitar tabs that will assist you in seeing the finger placements for your chords.

Each guitar string has a number associated with it beginning from the highest sounding string to lowest. The high E string is normally recognized as the #1 string. So the order of string numbers looks like this:

#1 = E (high), #2 = B, #3 = G, #4 = D, #5 = A, #6 - E (low)

Now that we've got our string numbers dialed in, let's start working on playing our open C chord. Here is the most common way to play this chord.

Step 1 - Place your first finger on string #2 (B) on the first fret.Step 2 - Place your middle finger on string #4 (D) on the second fret.Step 3 - Place your ring finger on string #5 (A) on the third fret.

With all three fingers in place, give your guitar a strum. Congratulations! You're playing an open C chord.

It may take a little bending from your fingers to make the curl around the neck of the guitar but keep working on it and you will find it getting easier and easier.

The open C chord is one of the great guitar chords for beginners because it has such a warm and rich sound. Many songs begin with this chord (i.e. Dust In The Wind) so if you continue to practice playing it, you will have a great starting point to launch into other chords that are right near by.

Here are some bonus tips on playing the C chord that will have you impressing all of your friends!

Tip #1 - Start by playing the C chord and then remove your ring finger from the 5th string. You are now playing an A minor 7 chord that makes the sound more haunting and moody. Go back to playing the full C chord and you will notice the sound becoming brighter again. It's a nice contrast.

Tip #2 - Start by playing the C chord and this time take your pinky finger and place in on string #4 (G) on the third fret right next to your ring finger. It makes the chord sound a bit higher as you have just played a C sus (suspended) chord. Now take your pinky finger off and you will be playing the C chord again.

Practicing those fingering moves from the C chord to the Am7 chord to the Csus chord will allow to begin to build a great foundation of chords to work with. As with any guitar chords for beginners, practice will make you a much stronger player. Good luck and enjoy playing!

Scott has been playing guitar for the past 30 years and enjoys sharing the love of playing the guitar with others. If you would like to learn how to sound great playing the guitar, enjoy these free guitar lessons.

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Guitar Chords For Beginners - The Awesome D Chord!

Did you ever want to learn how to play the guitar? If your answer is yes then you're in luck as learning guitar chords for beginners is not that difficult.

I've been playing guitar for the past 30 years and although technology has made it easy to watch online guitar lessons, it's up to you to put in the time to learn the chords as well as the music theory behind the chords if you wish.

For this article, we will be focusing on the D chord as well as some other guitar chords for beginners that will help form the foundation of many of the songs that you will end up playing.

Your guitar has 6 strings on it and is normally tuned to the following notes:

E, A, D, G, B, E

There are also guitar tabs that can help you learn to play beginner chords. For reference they number the strings as well as show you where your fingers should be placed to form the chord.

The guitar strings are normally numbered from highest to lowest meaning the last string on your guitar (the high E string) is know as the #1 string. So the numbering orders is as follows:

#6 - E (low)
#5 = A
#4 = D
#3 = G
#2 = B
#1 = E (high)

So without going into too much detail regarding music theory for now, some of the most common guitar chords for beginners are known as "open chords" because of their fingering style. When it comes to playing the D chord, the most common way to play it is as follows:

Step 1 - Place your first finger on string #3 (G) on the second fret.
Step 2 - Place your middle finger on string #1 (E high) on the second fret.
Step 3 - Place your ring finger on string #2 (B) on the third fret.

Congratulations! You just played an open D chord. You may want to work on bending your fingers, especially your ring finger, so that the tips of all of your fingers press firmly down onto the fret board to make the chord sound clean when you strum it. When it comes to guitar chords for beginners, if you practice and have some patience, you will see results come very quickly!

The D chord has a really nice and bright sound to it. Learn to play this chord well and you will be on your way to many well known songs that start off with this chord (i.e. Sweet Home Alabama).

Here's a few extra tips on the D chord that will have you sounding like a pro in no time.

Tip #1 - Play the D chord and while strumming or picking, place your little finger (pinky) on string #1 (E) on the third fret and then take it off again. Sounds cool doesn't it! You are playing what is called a D Sus (Sus = suspended) chord when you add your little finger to the mix.

Tip #2 - Play the D chord and this time remove your middle finger from string #1 (E) on the second fret and strum a few times and then put it back on again. When you remove your finger you are now playing what is known as a D5 chord. I love this chord as it has a darker feel compared the the open D chord itself.

So work on playing the open D chord as well as the D Sus and the D5 and you will begin to see lots of opportunities to make some great melodies happen!

Scott has been playing guitar for the past 30 years and enjoys sharing the love of playing the guitar with others. If you would like to learn how to sound great playing the guitar, enjoy these free guitar lessons.

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Augmented and Diminished Chords

When you play three notes at the same time, you are playing a chord. Triads are chords that have three notes. What we learn is that those three notes are all stacked in thirds.

To begin with, let us start with the F Major Chord. The first note that would be on the bottom is the root (F), the second note up is a third higher (A), and the third one is a third up from the second note (C).

Now, there are different types of thirds between the music notes in triads. Each third can be either major or minor. A major third has four half-steps between the notes, so we are looking at C to C# to D to D# to E. A minor third has 3 half-steps, C to C# to D to Eb, for an example.

The Diminished triads use only the minor thirds, one on top of the other. They sound dissonant and very scary like the interesting background music we hear from an old vaudeville skit. You know, when you see the lady tied to the railroad tracks. Oh, gosh, here comes the train! That is the sound I am hearing. They often create a very restless, nervous and tense feeling. So, C to Eb is a minor third and Eb to Gb is a minor third, too. Some folks refer to them as 'the Halloween' sound.

Keep in mind that the diminished triads can be used in your song playing as passing chords. They help connect two chords that are a whole tone apart. Here is an example of what I am talking about. If you are playing a song and at the beginning you play C-E-G (a C chord), why don't you hop on a C#dim chord on your way to Dm (D-F-A)?! I think you will agree, that is a very cool sound and a great transition in piano playing.

Moving on to Augmented triads, you will discover that they are made up of two major thirds. They also sound dissonant, and quite a bit noisy at that, like a honking truck on the street. In music they will definitely grab your attention. I have found these special sounds and transitions in popular songs that are from the 40's. When you look at these tones, C to E is a major third and E to C# is a major third as well.

From the Beatles music, (I'm a great fan) to Contemporary Worship (Gospel) songs, you will be discovering in your chord charts and soon playing these very interesting, set apart chords, the augmented and diminished chords.

Stop by and visit http://ladydpiano.com/ Diana Rogers is the author of free monthly piano tips and tools to take your piano playing to the next level.

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House Of The Rising Sun Chords

A very popular song that will add confidence to your piano playing is called The House Of The Rising Sun. It is an easy one to play and to sing along with. One can play it in the Key of A minor and here you can use the following chord chart:

Am - C - D - F - Am - C - E

Am - C - D - F - Am - E - Am

You can also play this moderately slow song (Andante moderato) in the Key of E minor. I have transposed the music 5 half-steps down. Here is what the piano and guitar chord chart looks like:

House of the Rising Sun

Em G A C

There is a house in New Orleans,

Em G B7

They call the "Rising Sun",

Em G A C

It's been the ruin of many a poor girl

Em B Em B7

And God, I know, I'm one.

The left hand arpeggiated chords or broken chords would be played as single notes, one at a time, in such a smooth, legato style. For those who sight-read, you would be observing the slur marks. Let us begin with a chord breakdown. It really helps to know your chords or to have a chord dictionary in your music library. Many online resources are available for this as well.

First, you would play the Em chord with the single notes, E-G-B. Next, the G Major would have this inversion, D-G-B. Followed by A Major, play another inversion, C#-E-A and then C-E-A.

You will be anticipating the B7 chord change that stands out in the song. How I love that sound. At this point, you will want to play these bass notes, F#-B-D#. Keep in mind, while playing in the Key of E minor, the key signature has one sharp and that is F#. It is the same when you are playing a song in G Major, too.

So whether you play the song down low or choose to play an octave higher the second time for a more dramatic effect, you will want your melody line to be very melodic and flowing. Here are the single notes for the right hand.

B-E -F#-G-B-A-E-E (There is a house in New Orleans)

E-E-E-D-D-B (They call the rising sun)

B-E-F#-G-B-A-E-E (It's been the ruin of many a poor boy)

E-E-B-B-E-E (and God, I know I'm one.)

Have fun playing the song for your own enjoyment and sharing with others.

Diana Rogers is the author of free monthly newsletters. http://ladydpiano.com/

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Where to Start If You Are a Beginner and Want to Learn Guitar Chords

Have you ever been wishful to learn to play guitar just after watching a great concert by a famous rock band? Have you ever felt like just grabbing a guitar and playing beautiful music straight from the heart? Well, certainly many people do feel that way because music has great impact on their lives. The guitar is one very common musical instrument found widely in every country and it even comes in many kinds. However, if you want to master it you need to put a lot of work and dedication, and the first step is to learn guitar chords.

First and foremost, you should have the desire to learn how to play the guitar before being able to learn guitar chords. Mindset is everything. Not only when it comes to guitar playing, but in many areas of life. The desire connotes to being patient and persevering in taking the lessons. You can get some lessons online through videos and audios that offer tutorials for free or with a small fee. So basically, the intense of your interest in learning to play guitar and its chords really does matter. Purchasing the guitar is, of course, the first step, but after doing that you are right away all set up to learn guitar chords.

The very first basic chord patterns you have to learn are the C, A, G, E and D major guitar chords (also known as "CAGED"). Once again, these are the most basic easy chords that you will encounter. These chords can help you in building the strength and endurance in your fingers especially when moving your hand up and down the fretboard as you play along. Interestingly, once you're comfortable with playing these chords, you can already perform a couple of pretty good songs that you will surely enjoy. Therefore, I suggest that you first practice these five basic guitar chords and memorize them until you are able to play them in a smooth sequence.

If you want to be able to play guitar chords there's basically one crucial thing for you to master. You have to get familiar with chord diagrams and their construction. To describe this to you, the guitar chord diagram has six vertical lines that represent the six strings. And the horizontal lines indicate frets except for the top line which is the head of the guitar. You can actually find these diagrams in any song book or handbook usually located at the back portion.

Sometimes you can stumble upon reversed chord diagrams. Ones where vertical lines represent frets, and horizontal lines represent strings. Fortunately, chord diagrams are usually well described to prevent any kind of confusion.

The black dots (or full dots, depending on the design) that are found in the diagram instruct you on what fret and string to place your fingertips on. The white dots (or empty dots) tell you to play the open string which means the string is strummed without being fingered on the fretboard. There are also diagrams that show numbers on the black dots to indicate what finger to use in pressing a string.

Finally, you should always keep in mind that guitar chord diagrams are all the resources you need to help you to learn new chords, chord progression and the rhythm parts of the song. The capacity to understand and read the guitar chord diagrams does not require the ability to interpret musical notes. So be positive in knowing that you can learn to play guitar, at least the basics of it, in a short span of time.

Now the best part. If you want to learn guitar chords in a friendly environment then feel free to visit my blog (the link earlier in the sentence) and receive some handy charts of 101 Basic Guitar Chords - it's free.

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