A Guide To C Major Piano Chord (2025)

The C major piano chord is one of the most fundamental and widely-used harmonies in Western music. As a three note triad, the notes C, E, and G form its sound.

C Major is also a great chord for beginners to learn and master. In reference to the key of C, all keys are natural. There are no accidentals (aka sharps, flats).

This article will show you not only how to build C Major, but how to build any major triad (3-note chord) you want. You will understand the structure through a bit of beginner friendly theory.

Not only that, but you’ll learn exactly what chords sound good with C Major and why. You’ll learn chord progressions and how to use inversions to make transitions easier and smoother.

Let’s begin!

Table of Contents

  • What Is The C Major Chord on Piano?
    • How To Build The C Major Scale
    • What Notes Are In The C Major Piano Chord?
      • Understanding Major and Minor 3rds
      • Perfect 5ths
      • Completing the Triad
  • What Other Chords Can You Play With C Major?
    • Root Position Triads in C Major
    • The V7 Chord
  • Understanding C Major Chord Inversions
    • 1st Inversion Triads (Chords) in C Major
    • 2nd Inversion Triads in C Major
    • V7 Inversions – 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
  • Playing Chord Progressions in C Major
    • Common Chord Progressions With C Major
    • Other Chord Lessons:

What Is The C Major Chord on Piano?

The C Major piano chord is what’s known as a 3-note triad. As noted previously, the natural keys C, E, and G, are the notes that complete the C Major chord harmony.

But giving you the Root, Major 3rd, and Perfect 5th and a chord diagram doesn’t help. It’s important that you understand the interval relationships. Once you have that, you’ll know exactly how to build ANY major (and minor) triad. Not only that, but which triads you can play that will work in functional harmony with it.

To get started, you need a tonal reference point to refer to. From there, you’ll have a reference to work with.

This is why learning scales is so important. But don’t worry, it’s not hard to grasp for beginners. And knowing this, you’ll be way ahead of most learners.

Let’s look at how to do it with C Major.

How To Build The C Major Scale

To build ANY Major Diatonic Scale, you simply combine two tetrachords with a whole step.

Tetrachords are a series of 4 notes (tetra meaning ‘four’) that follow the pattern of root + whole step + whole step + half step.

  • Half step is the distance to the very next key, either black or white with NO key between.
  • Whole step is equal to 2 half steps and has ONE key (black or white) between.

I like to remember it as two tetrachords joined by a whole step. But you can also memorize the whole pattern for building a major diatonic scale, which is:

R W W H W W W H

The complete series will give you the 7 notes of the major scale (the 8th being one octave above the root note). Here’s an illustration starting on C:

A Guide To C Major Piano Chord (1)

Now that we’ve identified the notes in the C Major scale, we can build out the C Major Chord and its progressions.

What Notes Are In The C Major Piano Chord?

When you combine 3 or more specific notes, you have a chord. The C Major chord is what’s more specifically known as a triad (meaning three).

ALL major triads (including C Major) follow this same formula. You include the following notes:

  • Root note (R) (where the chord gets its name)
  • Major 3rd (M3 or 3)
  • Perfect 5th (P5 or 5)
A Guide To C Major Piano Chord (2)

Let’s look at these very important intervals and how to find them on the keyboard.

Understanding Major and Minor 3rds

Some 3rds are minor. And some are major. Understanding the difference between the two is important to determine the character of the chord. Simply put, whether it is a major or a minor chord.

You can easily identify between major (larger) or minor (smaller) 3rds by counting half steps from your root note:

  • Major 3rd = 4 half steps
  • Minor 3rd = 3 half steps
A Guide To C Major Piano Chord (3)

TIP! ANY major 3rd may be changed to a minor 3rd by lowering it 1/2 step. Similarly, any minor 3rd becomes a major 3rd when you increase it 1/2 step.

Remember, this applies to ALL triads. Try counting half steps from other root notes to find their major and minor 3rds!

Perfect 5ths

Finally, to complete the chord harmony, you need a perfect 5th.

Perfect 5ths (P5) are the most important interval relative to the tonic. It’s the dominant tone above root note in the scale, and in our case, P5 completes the triad structure.

The 5th belongs to a group of perfect consonant notes. Unlike the 3rd, it has no larger or smaller variation (although you may augment or diminish the note).

You can always find a perfect 5th by counting 7 half steps from the root note:

A Guide To C Major Piano Chord (4)

Completing the Triad

To summarize, for the notes in the C Major chord (triad), you need:

  • Root note (in this case it’s C)
  • Major 3rd (4 half steps from C is E)
  • Perfect 5th (7 half steps from C is G)
A Guide To C Major Piano Chord (5)

And that’s how to build a C Major piano chord!

What Other Chords Can You Play With C Major?

Now that you know how a C Major piano chord is built, let’s find out what chords you can play with it that will sound good.

Root Position Triads in C Major

Returning to the C Major scale, you can build triads for each of the degree intervals.

For example, here are the root position triads in the C Major scale:

A Guide To C Major Piano Chord (6)
C Major Scale Triads by Scale Degree
Scale DegreeChord NameNotes
IC MajorC, E, G
iiD minorD, F, A
iiiE minorE, G, B
IVF MajorF, A, C
VG MajorG, B, D
V7G7 MajorG, B, D*, F
vi (relative minor)A minorA, C, E
vii°B DiminishedB, D, F

Btw – notice the emphasis on I, IV, and V/V7 chords. These are the primary chords, and most important intervals. We’ll discuss this more when we get to chord progressions.

You might also be wondering about the ‘V7’ chord in the list above…

The V7 Chord

Very often in music, you’ll see the V7 chord used instead of a V triad.

To build this chord, all you need to do is add a 7th interval on top of the root of the V triad.

For example, in the key of C major, the V (fifth degree) triad is G Major (G). As a V7 chord, it becomes G7:

A Guide To C Major Piano Chord (7)

NOTE: You will often see V7 chord inversions with the 5th interval removed, which will make transitions with other chords easier and smoother (more on this in a moment).

Understanding C Major Chord Inversions

Before we look chord progressions with C Major, you’ll want to make sure you understand inversions.

As the name suggests, you may “invert” the root / bass note of your chords. Not only can this make chord progressions much easier and smoother, but it gives you more options to explore chord voicings in your music.

With triads, there are 2 inversions from the root position:

  • Root (R, 3rd, 5th)
  • 1st Inversion (3rd, 5th, R)
  • 2nd Inversion (5th, R, 3rd)

Let’s go through this together with the chords built upon the C Major scale.

1st Inversion Triads (Chords) in C Major

The first inversion takes the root note, and places it above the 5th. Here’s an example illustrated with the C Major chord:

A Guide To C Major Piano Chord (8)

In 1st inversions triads, the root note is always on top. The 3rd will be on the bottom with the 5th in the middle.

Here are the first inversion triads for the C Major scale. The primary chords have again been highlighted:

A Guide To C Major Piano Chord (9)

And here’s a table outlining the structure of the 1st inversion triads in the C Major scale:

C Major Key – 1st Inversion Triads
Scale DegreeChord NameNote Order
IC/EB, D, G
iiDm/FC, E, A
iiiEm/GD, F#, B
IVF/AE, G, C
VG/BB, E, G
viAm/CC, E, A
vii°Bdim/DD, F, B

2nd Inversion Triads in C Major

From the 1st inversion triad position, you can once again take the bass (bottom) note and move it to the top. This will give you the 2nd inversion of a triad shape.

For example, the 2nd inversion of the C major chord:

A Guide To C Major Piano Chord (10)

With 2nd inversions triads, the root note is always in the middle. The 5th will always be on the bottom.

Here are the 2nd inversion triads for the C major scale intervals:

A Guide To C Major Piano Chord (11)
C Major Key – 2nd Inversion Triads
Scale DegreeChord NameNote Order
IC/GG, C, E
iiDm/AA, D, F
iiiEm/BB, E, G
IVF/CC, F, A
VG/DD, G, B
viAm/EE, A, G
vii°Bdim/FF, B, D

V7 Inversions – 1st, 2nd, and 3rd

Like triad inversions, there are V7 chord inversions. And because it has 4 notes, there can be 4 different positions.

Remember that the fifth interval (V) is rooted on G. Here are all 4 positions G7 can be built, including the root position and 3 inversions:

A Guide To C Major Piano Chord (12)

Notice that the 5th interval of the V7 chord is opaque in the above illustration. This note is of less importance on the “effect” of the chord than the other notes. As a result, you’ll often see it omitted in various progressions. This can especially be easier for beginners learning to transition between chord shapes.

G7 (as V7 Relative to C Major Tonic) Chord Positions
Chord PositionChord NameNote Order
RootG7G, B, D*, F
1st InversionB/G7B, D*, F, G
2nd InversionD/G7D*, F, G, B
3rd InversionF/G7F, G, B, D*

Playing Chord Progressions in C Major

If you’ve read this far, well done. You should now have a decent understanding of how major scales and chords (triads and V7, specifically) are built. Let’s finally put those chords together and make some music!

Regarding an C major chord – any of the chords we built upon the C major scale, in various progressions, will sound well with it.

Common Chord Progressions With C Major

You’ll recall the primary chords (I, IV, and V/V7) from earlier. These 3 triads will include all of the notes in the major scale, and as such, they are most often utilized for functional harmony.

The primary chords in C Major are best to learn, especially for beginners. You can usually apply some basic melodies and play many different songs / variations over them with just these few chord shapes.

Additionally, with inversions, you can make the progressions smoother and easier to play.

In fact, the IV chord is often played in a 2nd inversion, and the V/V7 chords in the 1st inversion. Notice how closely they are in this way as we look at these shapes in C Major:

A Guide To C Major Piano Chord (13)

Happy piano playing!

Other Chord Lessons:

  • G Major Piano Chord
  • D Major Piano Chord
  • A Major Piano Chord
  • E Major Piano Chord
  • F-Sharp Major Piano Chord
A Guide To C Major Piano Chord (2025)

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