PIANO HELP? - chords

[Mr.Scream]

Im teaching myself piano through chords as opposed to sheet music etc and I need help...I play guitar so im taking my knowledge of that and putting it for the piano.

I have an electric piano thing with 4 octaves on it.

I know the chords but I only play them with 3 fingers: C = C, E, G in the first and second octave but the recorded versions of songs and that sound alot more full than that...
how do I make it sound like the proper version???
like use the same notes on a higher octave too.
my fingers are currently like this:

 C  D  E  F  G  A  B  C
 ^      ^     ^

on those notes. thats it.

At the moment Im learning "Desperado" by the Eagles so if you could base your help on that.
I have the chords and it sounds nice but i'd imagine that you use more than just the 3 fingers!!!

Help!

dave

[chopinetta]

you can buy a book that shows how you position your hands on chords. there are many variations on the arrangement of your hands on the keys of a chord. for example, the chord C, the fist variation is this:

C  D  E  F  G  A  B  C  D  E
^      ^     ^

the second is this:


C  D  E  F  G  A  B  C  D  E
       ^      ^          ^

the third

C D E F G A B C D E
           ^       ^    ^

do that to other chords.

[chopinetta]

Oh no! it's an error wait here you go for chord c:

variation 1: CEG
2:EGC (C D *E F *G A B *C D E)
3:GCE (C D E F *G A B *C D *E)

and so on...

[amee]

You could also do CEGC to make the chord CEG sound fuller.

[chopinetta]

you can even use CEGCE or just CC (octave) which is very useful in the left hand!

[Yoad]

Well, it would sound better if you add the first note of the chord. That would be an octave.  Also you could have different abbreviations. When you’re doing the triads, you could more the first note of the chord one octave up. Keep doing that for different abbreviations

[glamfolk]

The best thing for adding depth to your chords is to double some notes, but a cool trick (used in Desperado) is to add the "2" to each chord, so that G becomes GABD instead of GBD, C becomes CDEG, and D becomes DEF#A, with single notes or light octaves in the left hand.  If you're playing the chords with your 1-3-5 fingers, the 2 notes fit nicely, and they don't usually tell you this in the chord diagrams.  

Have fun!