How to play an F-sharp major chord
Would you like to know how to play an F-sharp (F#) or G-flat (Gb) major chord on the piano? I’ll show you. Place your thumb on the lowest key of the group of three black keys. Skip one black key and play the next one – the top key of this group. Then play the lower black key of the next group of two. We are now only on the black keys, and this shape is the simplest form of an F-sharp major chord. I can also call it G-flat major – F-sharp major and G-flat major are synonymous. To keep it simple, I’ll stick to F-sharp major here. You can repeat this hand shape anywhere: you can also play it down here, or here, here and here – it works everywhere. These are all F-sharp major or G-flat major chords.
Breaking up the pattern
You now have the option of breaking up this pattern a little to add more variation. For example, you can simply move the lowest note up an octave, and then we get the first inversion of F-sharp major. Using exactly the same principle, I can move the lowest note up an octave again, and I get the second inversion of an F-sharp major chord. The same once more brings me back to the root position.
This way you can spread this hand shape over the whole keyboard, and you always have F-sharp major, or G-flat major. Once you know the names of the notes in this chord and the notes of the keyboard, you can arrange this F-sharp major chord however you like. You can double notes or leave some out – it doesn’t matter, as long as it sounds good. That means: I have F# here, A# here and C# here. So I can play this chord like this, for example – that is one option. I could also play it like this: now I have doubled it. Or here, where I left something out in the left hand. Everything is possible here – it is purely a matter of taste how I want to shape it.
Varying it yourself is always possible
You notice that when I play it like this, it still sounds the same – although sometimes it sounds a little fuller, or we have left notes out. That is purely a matter of taste and depends on the context of the piece I am playing. At the same time it is important that you hear what you play. When you play these notes, it is important that you could also sing them at the same time.
Singing is always the sign that you are hearing correctly. When you play a chord, the easiest thing is to first try to hear the highest note. Because when you hear what you play, you will automatically be able to play with much more feeling: what you play and press has a concrete connection. You hear it, you take it in, you give it back – and your whole piano playing will simply sound better when you have a trained ear.
Learning to hear correctly
This is how you start, in a simple way, to really learn to hear things. If I want to look at this F-sharp major chord in a wider context, it can appear on different degrees. For example, it can be the first degree in F-sharp major. At the same time it can be the fifth degree in B major, and it can also be the fourth degree of D-flat major – but then I would call this chord G-flat major. That has to do with the circle of fifths and with enharmonic equivalents; going into detail here would lead too far.
But the important thing is: the chord can be the first degree in F-sharp major, the fifth degree in B major, or – if I am in the key of D-flat major – the fourth degree. You can see which notes belong to F-sharp major in the F-sharp major scale.