Major & Minor Chords Of Harmonium



Indian music is melodic and western music is harmonic so chords and chord progressions accompany the melodic lines, therefore the music sounds fuller. It is important that we learn the fundamentals of chords as used in Indian film music.


Harmonium major chords, or any chord for that matter, are formed by combining two or more notes.  Now, when you from S major chord, it is recommended you form them using the 2nd,1st and 5th fingers of your right hand. Your thumb is the first finger index finger is the 2nd and pinky is the 5th finger. A chord is a combination of three (or more) notes played at the same time. All major chords are formed by playing simultaneously three notes, according to definite rules.


In keyboards chords are played mostly with left hand. Since we are learning harmonium so, your left hand will be busy in pumping bellows. In this situation we will play chord and melody with the right hand only.

As we have already defined in our previous lessons that any key can become a Sa or our starting note; but in our lessons we have assumed the first black key to be the Sa (S), for convenience and simplicity. Please see diagram above. There are a number of chords in western music but In harmonium lessons we will only use only major and minor chords. A major chord is formed when we simultaneously play three notes S-G-P or you will play numbers numbers    1-5-8. we will name this chord as SV. Harmonium chords are also called desi chords.

Harmonium komal and tiver notes with their numbers are given below as shown in the above diagram.

Sa    S as key number 1.  S  key number: 1
Komal r as key number 2. r  key number: 1
Tiver R  as key number 3. R  key number: 1
Komal g  as key number 4. g  key number: 1
Tiver G as key number 5. G  key number: 1
Komal m as key number 6. m  key number: 1
Tiver M as key number 7. M  key number: 1
----- P as key number 8. P  key number: 1
Komal d as key number 9. d  key number: 1
Komal D as key number 10. D  key number: 1
Komal n' as key number 11. n  key number: 1
Komal N' as key number 12. N  key number: 1
----- S' as key number 13. S'  key number: 1
Komal r' as key number 14. r'  key number: 1
Tiver R' as key number 15. R'  key number: 1
Komal g' as key number 16. g'  key number: 1
Tiver G' as key number 17. G'  key number: 1
Komal m' as key number 18. m'  key number: 1
Tiver M' as key number 19. M'  key number: 1
----- P' as key number 20. P'  key number: 1

Now to play the major chord S-G-P e.g.. we will play key numbers 1-5-8. This major chord is called S major. We will use the symbol 'V' for a major chord. Now the S major chord will be written as SV and as on.

Similarly, the major chord "rV" will be formed as: r-m-d and can be shown by numbers 2-6-9.

Below given is the complete list of  major harmonium chords:

S major chord, symbol SV, key nos. 1-5-8,  notes S-G-P
r major chord, symbol rV, key nos.2-6-9,  notes r-m-d
R major chord, symbol RV, key nos. 3-7-10, notes R-M-D
g major chord, symbol gV, key nos. 4-8-11, notes g-P-n
G major chord, symbol GV, key nos.5-9-12,  notes G-d-N
m major chord, symbol mV, key nos. 6-10-13 notes m-D-S'
M major chord, symbol MV, key nos. 7-11-14, notes M-n-r'
P major chord, symbol PV, key nos. 8-12-15, notes P-N-R'
d major chord, symbol dV, key nos. 9-13-16, notes d-S'-g'
D major chord, symbol DV, key nos. 10-14-17, notes D-r'-G'
n major chord, symbol nV, key nos. 11-15-18, notes n-R'-m'
N major chord, symbol NV, key nos. 12-16-19, notes N-g'-M'
We have shown madh saptak chords and similar sets of notes will apply in mandar and taar saptak. 

Harmonium minor chords are shown by symbol L. A minor chord is formed when we play three notes at the same time together example S-g-P with numbers 1-4-8. Below given is the complete list of  minor harmonium chords:

Whatever is our beginning note to start playing e.g. if we select  first black key as our Sa, the minor keys will maintain their names similar to, for example, r minor chord will maintain their symbols rL, will maintain their key numbers as, for example, 2-5-9,  will maintain their notes combination as, for example, r-G-d. Or we can write simply as:


r minor chord, symbol rL, key nos. 2-5-9, notes r-G-d


S minor chord, symbol SL, key nos. 1-4-8, notes S-g-P
R minor chord, symbol RL, key nos. 3-6-10, notes R-m-D
g minor chord, symbol gL, key nos. 4-7-11, notes g-M-n
G minor chord, symbol GL, key nos. 5-8-12, notes G-P-N
m minor chord, symbol mL, key nos. 6-9-13, notes m-d-S'
M minor chord, symbol ML, key nos. 7-10-14, notes M-D-r'
P minor chord, symbol PL, key nos. 8-11-15, notes P-n-R'
d minor chord, symbol dL, key nos. 9-12-16, notes d-N-g'
D minor chord, symbol DL, key nos. 10-13-17, notes D-S'-G'
n minor chord, symbol nL, key nos. 11-14-18, notes n-r'-m'
N minor chord, symbol NL, key nos. 12-15-19, notes N-R'-M'


How to play Indian songs with harmonium major and minor chords

First of all break down the song into several very small phrases and try to play the various major and minor chords given above with each small segment of the song line. Then you should check which chord sounds better with the word. You can partly mechanize this process by first playing the small segment of the song on the harmonium. Slowly you will be able to use or able to fill melody with harmony of chords.

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