Piano Chord Chart ... Please help!

I need your help guys:

I recently bought a piano chord chart. There are some discrepancies, however, between it and some other online chord positions on the piano. I'm now looking at good (and accurate) piano chord posters or charts and came upon this one.
http://tinyurl.com/xsrx

I know it's not too clear, but from what you can see, can you please tell me if it looks good and most importantly accurate ?

Thanks a lot!

Ok, thanks very much guys!

What then, would you recommend ?

Well, the major chord consists of the first, third, and fifth tone of the major scale. The minor chord consists of the first, flatted third, and fifth tone of the major scale. The sixth chord consists of the first, third, fifth, and sixth tone of the major scale. The Major Seventh consists of the first, third, fifth, and seventh tone of the major scale. The Seventh consists of the first, third, fifth, and flatted seventh tone of the major scale. When you get those down, I'll tell you about the others. Seriously, there are no short cuts.

FWIW I learned my chords Gerry's way and I highly recommend it. Once you get the idea of it you can usually figure out the notes for any chord you run into when it is notated as in fake books. TS

Learning how to construct and voice chords yourself, rather than looking them up on a chart. The rules aren't that hard to learn. The chart is going to be musically almost useless, anyhow - most of the time, it does you little good to know what notes are 'in' a chord, because it would be inappropriate to simply play the chord literally anyhow. Except perhaps for triads, which you *definitely* should know how to construct yourself, most chords of more than three notes are going to soun hopelessly muddy if you actually play all the notes in it. Also, in most musical situations where chord symbols are used, you have to find a way of playing the chord that connects smoothly to the previous and next chord, as well as somehow conveying a sense of pulse, and often covering a bass part as well. And in order to do a decent job with all of this, you *have* to know how to construct and voice the chords yourself. There are far too many to learn by rote from a chart, anyhow.

Thanks again Gerry

Tom,

What is 'Gerry's way' ?

Ok, short of getting a teacher, what book or online learning would you recommend for me to be able to 'construct and voice the chords' myself ? I just need the piano to accompany myself singing. I got a chart to help me work on a song, and then repeat the chords until I 'get it', for that particular song.

I have only been playing for 18 months and I am therefore very close to the frustrations you are experiencing yourself.

The answer is, I am afraid, it depends.

It depends on what the context is. What you are going to play after the chord, what the 'best' sound is for the particular piece you are playing. You have to work out the inversion that best fits with the tune and how it moves after that.

Gee thanks, Tom, but I don't think I really deserve having modern musical theory named after me <<Blush>> Daniel, I think Tom is referring to the remainder of this message - see below.

Well, I'll try not to cop out entirely. The confusion is that the chord, especially complex chords like Am11 describe the entire tonal fabric. You might well play all the notes by dividing them between your two hands, but it would be rare to play all the notes simultaneously on a piano. In most cases I think I'd say that the root and the highest listed note are the most important notes. That isn't always true, of course, in the case of any minor chord you need that flat third in there somewhere. Anyway, in the case of an 11th or a 9th chord, in most cases the 9 or 11 is the melody note at that time. In may cases the chord notation is meant to tell you where you are going to are coming from as well as to provide info to other members of the perfoming group. For instance, the bass player will usually want to play the root and probably the fifth alternatingly. Only your ear and experience can give you a complete answer to your question, but I hope this points you in the right direction.