Piano chord inversions are a simple and magical little tool that you can use to make traditional and simple piano music sound new and fresh. The idea is simple, but too many pianists don’t understand how to use inversions or how powerful they can be to improve their playing.
Simply put, a piano chord inversion is a piano chord played in something other than “root position”. A chord is in root position when the root of the chord is at the bottom (leftmost side of the piano) of the notes being played. So, C major in root position is played as CEG, where C is a third (4 half steps or two whole steps) below E, and E is a minor third (3 half steps or 1 whole step and 1 half step). ) below G.
To create the same chord played in the “first inversion”, simply move the C up one octave, so the chord is played as EG C. The “second inversion”, as you may have guessed, is created by moving the E up , so the chord becomes GC E.
This can be done with any chord, in any key, with any number of extensions. However, the more notes there are in the original chord, the more inversions it can have. For example, C7 in root position is CEG Bb, the first inversion is EG Bb C, the second inversion is G Bb CE, and the third inversion is Bb CE G. The number of inversions is one less than the number of notes in the original chord.
Different inversions create slightly different sounds, although the basic function of the underlying chord remains the same. To hear this in action, consider a famous song like “Lean On Me” by Bill Withers.
The opening chord progression goes up the piano over white keys, but begins with C major played in first inversion (with C up). Listen to a recording of the song yourself and you should be able to play easily knowing what this opening chord is.
Now try the same progression for this song, but start with C major in root position. Even though the chords are the same, the sound is different enough that you’re probably saying, “That doesn’t sound right!” Chances are your listeners are still saying the same thing, even though they can probably recognize the melody.
That’s the kind of different piano chord inversions you can do in your playing.
Inversions also help when moving from one chord to the next. One facet of a good-sounding harmony is what’s called good “voice direction,” which means that the individual voices of the harmony (chord notes) shouldn’t move much when the chord changes.
For example, if the first chord is C major and you want to move to F major, you could play CEG, followed by FAC, but that’s a little jump on the piano keyboard. To most listeners’ ears, it sounds much better to play CEG, followed by CFA, where the F major chord is in second inversion. In this second progression, only E and G were moved, and they only moved to the next white key on the piano. Try it yourself and notice the difference.
The key is to think of any chord that can be played in root position or any inversion, then simply choose the inversion for the sound you’d like to create, or that matches the recording you’re learning from, and/or provides a good voice direction. .
And now you know the magic of piano chord inversions!