# Broken chords and arpeggios

Roll a chord or arpeggiate it and take as long as you need. PianoKitty checks which keys you are holding and does not time you.

## Play a chord one note at a time

You do not have to press all three keys together. Play the root, then the third, then the fifth: as long as the keys stay down, the app treats them as one chord. There is no timer.

This helps beginners, whose fingers often find the keys one at a time. Rolling a chord is also a perfectly normal way to play it on the piano.

![The practice screen asking for a triad, nothing played yet.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/broken-chords/hero.webp)

## It waits for the whole chord

The app counts the keys you are holding. Until there are enough for the whole chord, it does not mark anything as wrong. When the count matches the chord, it checks the notes you are holding.

![The keyboard with two of the three notes held down.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/broken-chords/mid-chord.webp)

![The keyboard with all three notes of the chord held down.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/broken-chords/complete.webp)

> Keys still held from the *previous* chord do not count against you. The app tracks which keys you pressed since the last answer, so you can play legato and do not have to lift your whole hand before the next chord.

## Read a chord as one shape

Beginners read sheet music one note at a time: find the note, name it, play it, go on to the next. Fluent readers take in a whole group of notes, such as a chord or a broken chord, and play it in one move. Chord drills practice exactly that.

If you switch the question to the staff, the same chord can be printed two ways: stacked, or spread out as a run. The notes and the keys are the same, but your eye has to learn to recognize both.

![A chord printed as a stack of notes on the staff.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/broken-chords/staff-block.webp)

![The same chord printed as an ascending run on the staff.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/broken-chords/staff-arpeggio.webp)

## Hear chords as arpeggios

Ear training can play a chord all at once or as a melodic arpeggio, one note after another at a pace you set. The arpeggio is easier to hear, because you can name each note as it sounds instead of picking the notes out of one block of sound.

![The ear-training playback settings: harmonic or melodic, with a note pace.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/broken-chords/ear-playback.webp)

## Try a drill

- Try it: [Roll some triads](https://pianokitty.com/app?subject=chords&ct=0,1&bn=0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11&inv=0): Major and minor triads in every key, with the notes in any order you like.
- Try it: [Read arpeggios on the staff](https://pianokitty.com/app?subject=chords&ct=0,1&bn=0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11&inv=0&nd=staff&smel=asc&sclef=true): The same triads, printed as ascending runs.
- Try it: [Read them stacked](https://pianokitty.com/app?subject=chords&ct=0,1&bn=0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11&inv=0&nd=staff&smel=off&sclef=true): The block version, for comparison.
- Try it: [Four notes to roll](https://pianokitty.com/app?subject=chords&ct=6,7,8&bn=0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11&inv=0): Seventh chords, where playing one note at a time helps most.

Related: [Inversions, fast](https://pianokitty.com/features/inversions.md), [Choose your own voicing](https://pianokitty.com/features/voicings.md), [Left hand, right hand, or both](https://pianokitty.com/features/hands.md)

Source: https://pianokitty.com/features/broken-chords