Piano House Riffs

This is a really big question, but..

Off the top of my head, here are the chords for the main riffs in two oldskool tracks.

Sterling Void - Runaway

Dm Dm Dm Dm Em Em
Em Fmaj Fmaj Fmaj Fmaj
Gmaj Fmaj Em Dm Em

Ce Ce Rogers - Someday

Dm Dm Dm Dm Bflatmaj Bflatmaj Bflatmaj
Bflatmaj_ Bflatmaj Am Gmaj Cmaj

On the whole, if you start with a basic triad, like F major which has the following notes:

B
G
F

then move it up and down the scale, you'll soon start hearing combinations of chords which sound a bit housey. To go a bit more garagey/jazzy, add a seventh to the chord, so F major7 would be

D
B
G
F

move that one up and down the scale. You'll find some chords don't sound right, and you have to move the seventh note up or down a key to make it work, depending on what root note (the leftmost note in the chord) you're playing.

To start with though, try combinations of simple triads.

For tabs and chords go here: Keyboard Chords

If you're looking for some combinations of chords which sound "right" following each other, have a search for info on cadences. IMO a lot of piano riffs, in fact a lot of chord progressions in house music, follow a relatively small set of basic chord patterns.

A cadence is pretty much a way of 'resolving' a piece of music in a way which will make sense and sound good. When a piece of music or a set of chords is 'resolved' in effect this just means it will make musical sense when it's looped. There are only a few basic types of cadence to get your head around.

The trick is to listen to the bassline of a track. Work that out on a keyboard, then add the basic triads etc. to each bass note in turn. When you get to that point, you can change the tone & feel by filling some or all of the chords out a bit more, by doing things like adding the 7th or dropping the middle note from the triad... adding another note a full octave lower or higher than the top/bottom note etc. to change the emphasis... then you can start to get cleverer and intersperse the basic progression you've figured out with further chords to transition from one point in your progression to the next.

Get to grips with that lot and I reckon you'll be off and running coming up with your own piano licks.