The first chords that we are taking a look at are sometimes called triads. A triad is just a term for a 3 note chord.

So putting it all together, here are the 7 basic triads built from the C major scale.

* The numbers in red are the degrees of the C major scale used to build the chord.

It is a little easier to visualize how chords are created on the piano as opposed to the guitar. The video below shows these seven chords and how they would be played on the piano. The white keys from C to C form a C major scale. Therefore to create the basic chords, you skip every other white key. This video does not have any sound.

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