Introducing The Ultimate Guide to Piano Chords
For the past year, I've been working with Ruth Alberici and Garreth Brooke on a project that grew out of a problem all three of us had encountered as teachers.
There can be a real disconnect between the way students learn to play music and the way they learn music theory.
Too often, theory is presented primarily through written exercises: students learn the symbols, complete the questions and perhaps even pass the exam, but they may never really hear what those concepts sound like, never feel them beneath their fingers, nor understand how they relate to the music they actually play.
We wanted to approach things differently.
Our aim with The Ultimate Guide to Piano Chords is to make harmony tangible, audible and practical - something students experience at the keyboard rather than simply memorise on the page.
Learning to think in harmony
The result is a 94-page Core Guidebook, accompanied by a 59-page Workbook beginning in C major and A minor. The material builds progressively from scales and basic chord construction through to much richer applications of harmony, always connecting theoretical understanding with actual playing.
Students explore:
diatonic chords in major and minor keys
tonic and dominant harmony
root-position chords and inversions
cadences
circle-of-fifths progressions in classical and jazz styles
minor scales and their relationship to the relative major
the 12-bar blues
harmonising Happy Birthday
chord progressions inspired by Pachelbel's Canon, La Folia, the "Axis of Awesome" progression and Autumn Leaves
and much more, including explorations beyond straightforward major and minor tonality
The goal isn't simply to be able to name or play a collection of chords. It is to begin thinking in harmony - recognising patterns, understanding how chords relate to one another, and hearing the architecture beneath the music.
From one key area to twelve
The first Workbook works in C major and A minor, allowing students to learn the complete sequence of exercises in a familiar key area. From there, we are developing a full set of 12 Workbooks covering all 12 major/minor key areas, so the same skills can gradually become fluent across the keyboard.
The structure is deliberate. Rather than learning isolated facts about harmony, students repeatedly apply the same core ideas in different keys.
A year of collaboration
This book has been a genuine labour of love. Over the past year, Ruth, Garreth and I have written, discussed, tested, taught, edited and re-edited every aspect of the material - from the overall progression of the course right down to the way individual chords and exercises are presented.
And beneath all those conversations was always the same question:
Will this help somebody understand music better?
We wanted to create a resource that could sit alongside a pianist's existing lessons and repertoire - something teachers could use flexibly with students, but which independent learners could also work through themselves.
Above all, we wanted theory to become part of making music.
I'm absolutely delighted that The Ultimate Guide to Piano Chords is finally ready to go out into the world.
Launch offer
To celebrate the launch, The Ultimate Guide to Piano Chords is 20% off from Monday 14 September through Thursday 17 September 2026. The initial download includes both the 94-page Core Guidebook and the 59-page C major/A minor Workbook.
Comments