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D major chord

The three notes, the three ways to stack them and which fingers to use.

The short answer

The notes of the D major chord are D, F sharp and A.

On the keys

Keyboard with D, F sharp and A markedDAF♯

Yellow is the root, the note the chord is named after.

On the staff

Treble and bass staves showing the D major chord in root position: D, F sharp and A

The D major chord in root position. The treble clef is the right hand; the bass clef is the same chord an octave lower for the left.

Inversions

An inversion keeps the same three notes and changes which one is lowest. The D major chord has a root position and two inversions, and all three still sound as D major.

  1. Root positionD F♯ Aright hand 1 3 5, left hand 5 3 1
  2. First inversionF♯ A Dright hand 1 2 5, left hand 5 3 1
  3. Second inversionA D F♯right hand 1 3 5, left hand 5 2 1

Keep going

D major scale

The scale this chord is built on: D, E, F sharp, G, A, B and C sharp.

B minor chord

The relative minor shares the same key signature as D major.

D minor chord

Same root, one note different: the third moves a semitone down.

Questions

How do you build a D major chord?

Start on D, add the major third (four semitones) above it, which is F sharp, then the perfect fifth above the root (seven semitones), which is A.

How many inversions does a D major chord have?

Two: first inversion puts F sharp at the bottom and second inversion puts A at the bottom. With root position that makes three ways to play the same chord.

Practise D major and the chords around it in PlayPiano, a piano practice app for iPhone and iPad.

Play it in the app