I, IV and V chords on piano

The last post showed you the “number” of each chord in a major scale.

This post is going to tell you which numbers are the most important, and why.

In any major scale, the I, IV and the V notes are the most important for making major chords.

In the scale of C major, this is C (being the first note of the scale), F (being the fourth note of the scale), and G (being the fifth note of the scale). You can do this for any major scale. Let’s take G major, this is G (the first note), C (the fourth note), and D (the fifth note).

So, in C major, your major chords are C+ F+ and G+.

In G major, your major chords are G+ C+ and D+.

Note, you can now find the I, IV and V notes of any scale (a scale is the same as referring to the key signature). And, notice you can find these in the first five notes of the major scale. Do, re, mi, fa, so. Do is I, fa is IV, and so is V. Now practise this starting on many different notes by singing the first 5 notes of the scale and noting which one is I, IV and V.

OK, the fun will start on the next post when we start to play some easy fun songs that use the I, IV and V chords.