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You can get picture chord books which have photos of hands in the apposite positions for various chords - is that any help? For me chords are too much like maths for comfort and I go all of a doo-dah if I have to work 'em out, so a book like that would be useful for me in your situation. However, it sounds as though you're fairly clued up already!

Hi there
You can also get a very different and softer and more mellow sound if you open the chords ie: play each note seperately....it allows a lot of improvisation depending on the music you are playing.

Sounds like you need to start either learning by ear harmony from your favourite music and apply that or buy yourself a god theoretical harmony book. One excellent one based around choral harmony as practised by Bach et al is 'Elementary Harmony' by C.H. Kitson - Oxford University Press. It explains and gives examples of all chord forms from simple diatonic inversions to more complex 'added note ' chords such as you mentioned.

Sounds like you need to start either learning by ear harmony from your favourite music and apply that or buy yourself a good theoretical harmony book. One excellent one based around choral harmony as practised by Bach et al is 'Elementary Harmony' by C.H. Kitson - Oxford University Press. It explains and gives examples of all chord forms from simple diatonic inversions to more complex 'added note ' chords such as you mentioned.

A "chord" is often defined as two or more notes played together" but, in practice, it is really THREE notes or more, and the vast majority of the seven hundred or so that I use do not fit into the very basic system of chord notation which you have learnt so diligently, because pieces do not always stay in a single scale. You need to look at them differently, and learn to locate the notes of a major scale in any key. Then, don't just think in terms of melody and chord, experiment with adding a simple harmony, such as a third below the melody, or a sixth, or both together. If you are in East Anglia, you can contact me for lessons, at
http://www.uk-piano.org/piano-gen/index.html