How to Identify Chords Written on Sheet Music

This easy lesson is designed to help you understand how to look at a chord and know what chord is written. By the end of the lesson, you should have a basic understanding on identifying the inversion and root of the chord you are looking at.

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This lesson reviews root position, 1st inversion, and 2nd inversion triads. Depending on which position the notes of the chord are in tells you what the name (root) of the chord is. If the chord is in root position, the root is on the bottom. For 1st inversion, the root is at the top of the chord. For 2nd inversion, the root note is in the middle of the chord. Being able to identify chords by sight as a beginner will really help with reading sheet music and playing piano.

00:00 Intro
00:54 Root position chords
01:45 1st inversion chords
02:35 2nd inversion chords
03:00 Review of major and minor chords
07:45 Chords split between voices

[ganjarsatrio]

I have taken Music Theory, sadly I had no time to catch up after I entered in college and in the last 5 years haven't played guitar. Is really sad how much I forgot, but I am determined to practice again and I want to be fluent to read sheet music while I play, I cannot even remember the most of what I could play, I remember only 4 or 5 songs. Watching your lessons are amazing, thank you.

[BeginwinTV]

Good video! Honestly though, I don't know how anyone learns to read music...there's just SO much to try and comprehend let alone read and play at the same time. Kudos to all that have mastered it. :)

[neef]

That was amazing. I had previously touched on inversions but, it’s different to see and hear the chords versus just reading about them. You made it very easy to understand.

[Kevinschart]

i'm learning from a very popular berklee guitar book and none of this is explained. you're just told to work through the material. this is very helpful

[Lalasofiii]

You are a lifesaver, as I am studying music theory I felt I have had a lot of help from your videos! Thank you for that 🙏 you are very good at explaining and making it simple or at least understandable (I find it quite hard to learn all of this) but easier for sure!

[LocoRockeiro]

Excellent video, you're an awesome teacher!

[nae]

very helpful, i appreciate the way you explain it in a condensed way, really helps me understand

[FrankCGraves]

Great Presentation on chords. I will watch your other lessons. Myself I memorize the C chords and use the chromatic scale to figure out anychord by going up a 1/2 step. (or down). Thanks for the lessons. Hello from Texas

[djbprogrammer]

I like your teaching style. Keep up the good work. Thanks

[lilianaruiz]

This really helps with my Music Theory class, thanks a lot! Love your videos and the way you explain things.

[ajds]

Very helpful video, I’m learning music theory so I can pick up music as a subject next year in school!

[justLNk]

i've always been bad at music theory. thank you, you made it a little more clear.

[mitchellbonomi]

Your instructions on all your videos are invaluable..Thank you.

[ChanceShuffle]

So glad I found this video! It was super helpful for me as I am a guitar player trying to write a guitar part for an established play production that has no guitar part and the only music I have to use is a Piano score! Trying to identify the chords correctly had been quite difficult until I found this video! Again super helpful for me so thank you for making it quick and easy to understand as seeing the Piano music was incredibly intimidating.

[tompetrie]

That was very good. I'm working on my major triads now--memorizing the major ones. Your information was very helpful. I'll send a donation ASAP. Thanks again!

[coelacanth]

This is incredibly helpful for an accordionist!! Thank you

[DaoKyle]

What program are you using to write the notes on digitally like you are doing ?? Great video!!

[ubmg]

Thanks Tim, this is quite a handy little video. I'm currently at the stage where I know most of the keys, but I have been struggling with reading chords from the sheet music. This has helped, but my question is - when there are more than three notes in the chord, do you continue to shift notes between clefs in the same way as you would a triad? Will that still work for chords that have 4 or more notes?

[ccs]

great video. I learned a lot. Thank you!!

[luckygjv]

Thank you so much man, really helped me. I have my ABRSM Grade 5 Music Theory exam next week and this video really helped me revise. Thank you so much!