One of the most important elements of playing an arranger keyboard are the left hand chords. These chords supply all the harmonic information which drives the accompaniment styles.
 
There are MANY different types of chords all creating a different atmosphere to the overall sound and it is important for the home player to learn as many different chords as possible.
 
Remembering ALL the different chords in ALL the different key signatures is very difficult simply because there are so many. If you can remember every chord in every key you have a fantastic memory and for most people it is overwhelming.
 
A better way to become familiar with lots of chords is to learn the 'formula' of how different type of chord is created so when a chord crops up in a piece of music that you don't know you can spend a couple of minutes and work it out. This is what we will be looking at in this two book series of 'chord construction' books – the different formulas for working out chords.
 
To lay the foundations we need to first study some topics that, at first glance, seem to not directly relate to the topic. Rest assured they do and are very important to understand how everything works.
 
Spending some time on these topics will pay major dividends as the system unfolds. This is mainly what we will cover in this book, while Book 2 will focus on how to work out many different types of chords.