The Ultimate Guide to Piano Chords
By Ruth Alberici, Garreth Brooke and Lona Kozik
 
Digital resource | Core Guidebook + C major/A minor Workbook
 
Chords are powerful. They are the foundation of musical storytelling, turning simple notes into patterns of colour, tension and release.
 
The Ultimate Guide to Piano Chords is designed to help pianists do more than simply identify or memorise chords. Through a carefully structured sequence of explanations and practical keyboard exercises, students learn to recognise harmonic patterns, understand how chords function, and use them fluently in their own playing.
 
A secure understanding of chords can help pianists:
recognise patterns in notation and sight-read with greater confidence
accompany singers or other instrumentalists
compose and improvise more naturally
understand tension and resolution in the music they play
connect theoretical knowledge directly with sound and movement at the keyboard
 
What you’ll learn
 
The guide introduces chords clearly and progressively, including:
how chords are built and how they appear on the keyboard
chord inversions and smooth movement between them
common chord progressions
how tension is created and resolved within a key
practical applications drawn from classical, pop and jazz harmony
 
By the end, the aim is not simply to be playing chords, but to be thinking in harmony.
 
What’s included
 
This download includes:
The 94-page Core Guidebook, working initially in C major and A minor and combining explanations with practical keyboard exercises
The 59-page C major / A minor Workbook, containing the corresponding exercise sequence for independent practice or use with students
 
The complete series will include twelve workbooks covering all key signatures, allowing the same sequence of skills to be developed systematically in every key.
 
Each section progresses from easier material towards more advanced applications, with major-key work followed by its minor-key counterpart.
 
The books are designed to sit alongside existing piano teaching or study materials rather than replace them — giving teachers and students a practical, musical way to develop harmonic understanding at the keyboard.