Chord Piano Lesson - Chord Inversions

In our next chord piano lesson we're gonna talk about chord inversions.
Until now we've learned about four types of chords. The major, minor, diminished and augmented chords ( Click here to cover these issues if you haven't yet). These are the four basic types of chords that will help you get your way through.

There's only one problem. Imagine we have to play two chords one after the other. The first chord would be C major for example and second one would be F major. These two chords are often played one after the other. Try to play them.

Did you try it? If you did you probably noticed that lifting your hand and jumping to another area on the piano was unavoidable.

This jump creates an unfriendly pause between the two chords and that disturbs the continuity in the music.
Our ear likes to have it all connected in order to understand the connection between one chord and the other.

For that reason we will learn in todays chord piano lesson to play chords in different inversions.
What I mean by that is that we use the same chords as we did before (C-E-G for C major for example) only we place them differently on the piano in a way that it could connect to the next chord more easily (E-G-C or G-C-E).

By connecting chords with the right inversions you create a voice leading.
Western music is built out of harmonic progressions.
The voices inside each chord are leading smoothly to the next chord in a way that creates tension or release.
We'll focus on voice leading later in our study. For now let's move on to practical inversions and you'll get the rest soon enough.

Alright, let's look at C major for example. C major is built out of three notes C, E, G.
This is the root position of the chord. That means that its root note C is also the lowest note of the chord.
In order to move to the first inversion all we have to is to place the root note above the notes E and G instead of under these two notes.

This is what we call the 1st inversion.

If you'll listen to this inversion you'll notice that it has a more open sound. The replacement of the root note above the two other notes allows the chord to develop harmonically more easily.

Now for the second inversion; we have to repeat the same procedure by replacing the E chord which is now the lowest note of the first inversion above G and C.

If we continue this procedure and place the G above C and E again we'll get back to the root position of the chord. To conclude one can say that chords of three voices/notes have three inversions only: The root inversion, the 1st inversion and the 2nd inversion.

We can perform this process with all the chords we've learned. Here are a few examples of different types of chords (Left to the note names you'll find the right fingering of the different chord inversions).

Find the inversions of the following chords : C, G, F, D, E, Am, Dm, Em, Cm

If you follow the instructions in this chord piano lesson you'll notice that finding the chords inversions gets easier from time to time.
By the way, you don't have to find all chord inversions right now. I suggest you practice the concept and the rest will come once you practice songs with new chords.
In every song you play you'll get familiar with a few more chord inversions until you'll become a pro.

How to Practice Songs With Inversions?

That's a good question. Luckily for you I have a straight answer for it in this very chord piano lesson!

Remeber the example I showed you at the beginning of this chord piano lesson? Where we tried to find a smooth way to change from C major to F major?
Let's take the beginning of the song Imagine by John Lennon for example.

The verse looks like this:

4/4 | C | F | C | F | x2

O.k. so before we've learned about the inversions in this chord piano lesson we would play a basic C chord for four counts and then jump to the basic F chord and play it for four counts, but now we know better.

The interval definer tells you which area of the piano you're supposed to find your chord inversions on.
If we are limited on playing chords from middle C to B for example we can't play F major in its root position since its upper note C is played above our limit B.
We have to inverse the chord and lower the C under F and A.
At the end we stick with C F and A. the 2nd inversion of F major.

Now if we combine both chords we'll realize we don't have to jump any longer. If we go from the C position to the 2nd inversion of F major all we have to do is raise the upper two keys (E and G) one white key to the right to F and A and back.

This is basically it for this chord piano lesson. My suggestion to you is that when you choose a song, first practice the inversions of all the chords it contains and then move slowly through the song and find one inversion after the other in the chord progression of the song.
This is the best way to learn to play chord inversion in a practical manner.

If you don't seem to find a chord inversion of a chord just go to its root position and climb the inversion carefully.

Here's a list of songs to begin with:

In our next chord piano Lesson I'd like to talk about slash chords. Click here to learn about slash chords.