8. The first chord: D-major
A chord is built by three or more different notes played at the same time. A major chord usually consists of the root (also called keynote or tonic note) from which you count to the third and to the fifth note of the scale.
As our kantele is tuned in D, the tonic note is "D". Now for a D-major chord, we climb up two wholetone steps on the scale to the third note (F#) and from there one and a half steps to the fifth (A). So the D-major chord consists of the three notes D-F#-A.
On a piano, you can build a D-major chord by playing the keys that are coloured in orange in the following picture. The keys that are coloured in green here build a G-major chord. And the purple keys show how to play an A-major chord on a piano. As you can see, you can play the chord in a lower or a higher register: it will always be the same chord.
Now, how can we transfer that to the five-string kantele? As we have the notes D-E-F#-G-A on a fivestring kantele, we have to mute the notes E and G because they do not fit into the D-major chord.
With the index finger of our left hand, slightly touch the G-string, and with the middle finger or with the ring finger, slightly touch the E-string. We strum over all strings, but only the D-, F#- and A-string will actually sound, and voilà, that's our first chord: D-major. I prefer the ring finger solution (see photo on the right) because I think it is easier to change chords later on. Try out both and decide what is best for you!