The sound of New Age music can be divided into 3 parts: melody, harmony, and rhythm. The harmony aspect can be thought of simply as chords. Now, New Age music uses certain piano chords more than others.

A chord that I really like is the ninth chord. All of this means that the ninth note of the scale is used to create the chord. For example, a triad built from the C major scale is written -ceg. If we add the seventh note in the scale (b) we get a seventh chord – C major 7. It is written – cegb. Simple enough.

Now if we continue up the scale, we’ll get to the octave C. The next note after this is the ninth note (d). It is also the second note of the scale. This can be confusing, but it’s just a counting system. The chord of C major 9 is written cegbd. This chord has a very rich sound and is often used in New Age music. It can be used as an ostinato, or as a broken chord or arpeggio.

A typical New Age chord progression is simple and generally stays within the scale it came from. We can play C Maj. – F Major. and G Major. and using only these 3 piano chords, improvise and create in the New Age style.

In fact, in the online lesson “Ocean Dreams” this is exactly what is done. Except in this lesson, I drop the seventh tone of the chord and play an octave in the left hand.

By removing the seventh tone, I am creating a more folksy or New Age sound. The seventh tone is mainly used in Jazz music, but it can also be used in New Age music.

Once the left hand is “down” I add tones of the C major scale, especially the ninth tone (d) and the New Age sound is evident. Other piano chords used in New Age music will be detailed in other articles later.