Piano chords · Every key
Chords in every key
Every major and minor key has seven chords, one built on each note of its scale. Pick a key to hear its chords and the progressions they make, find the key your chords are in, or print the whole chart.
Progressions in C major
Four chords behind a huge number of pop songs. Start the loop on any of them and it still works.
Doo-wop, early rock and roll and every slow dance at the end of the night.
Home, away, further away, home. Folk, country, blues and rock all start here.
The most important progression in jazz, with sevenths: each root falls a fifth to the next.
The same four chords as the pop progression, starting on vi: same chords, a sadder story.
The eight chords of Pachelbel’s Canon, two beats each. Play the Canon →
More about C major: the scale, fingering and key signature →
Which key are my chords in?
Tap the chords in your song. The keys that hold all of them appear below, the likeliest first: tap the chord the song starts or ends on first, as that's usually home.
Pick two or three chords to start.
The chart: chords in all 24 keys
Each row is a key; each column is a chord of the key, numbered from the home chord. Capital numerals are major chords, small ones minor, ° diminished.
Major keys
Minor keys
The last column is the major V that most minor-key music uses, from the harmonic minor scale.
How the chords of a key work
Take the C major scale, C D E F G A B. Start on each note in turn and stack every other note: C–E–G, D–F–A, E–G–B, and so on. Because you only use the scale's notes, some chords come out major and some minor, always in the same order: major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminished. That's why musicians number chords with Roman numerals (I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, vii°) instead of letters: a progression like I–V–vi–IV works the same in every key.
The three major chords, I, IV and V, are the primary chords: home, away and the chord that pulls you back. Add vi and you have the four chords of a huge share of pop music. A minor key is the same seven chords as its relative major, starting from the sixth: A minor has the chords of C major, with Am as home.
Add one more note above each chord (the seventh) and you get the seventh chords, the colour of jazz and soul: switch on Sevenths in the tool above to hear them.
Changing chords, but it doesn't flow? Ivory listens to you play and tells you what's off: a note that's missing, a hand that lands late, a chord change that's late. Then it shows you how it should go.
Questions people ask
How do you find the chords in a key?
Build a three-note chord on each note of the scale, using only the scale's notes. In a major key that always gives major, minor, minor, major, major, minor and diminished chords, in that order; in a minor key, minor, diminished, major, minor, minor, major and major.
What chords are in the key of C major?
C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am and Bdim. With sevenths: Cmaj7, Dm7, Em7, Fmaj7, G7, Am7 and Bm7♭5.
What chords are in the key of G major?
G, Am, Bm, C, D, Em and F♯dim.
What are the primary chords?
The I, IV and V chords: the three major chords of a major key (in C: C, F and G). In a minor key, i, iv and V. Most folk, blues and rock songs can be played with just those three.
Why does a minor key use a major V chord?
The natural minor scale gives a minor v chord, but most music raises the scale's seventh note by a half step (the harmonic minor), which makes the V chord major. Its middle note is then a half step below the home note, so it pulls back home much more strongly.
Do relative major and minor keys have the same chords?
Yes. C major and A minor share all seven notes, so they share all seven chords: the home chord is just different (C in C major, Am in A minor).