Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman, and in this lesson we're going to learn about a very powerful musical tool
that allows you to manipulate chords in all kinds of ways.
It's called chord inversions, and understanding them is critical for any composer, musician, or pianist,
especially as we're getting to more advanced music.
Let's come to the piano to check out how chord inversions work.
Let's say we wanted to play the chord progression I in the key of C, so this is our I chord,
and then we wanted to play a IV chord next, which would be right here in the key of C or F major chord.
Now you can see that that's a bit of a jump to get all the way from here to here.
That would be what's called not smooth voice leading. If you can imagine that each of these notes is a different voice, this voice would have to go:
A pretty big jump up, but there's another way to do that IV chord using inversions.
We've mentioned this occasionally, that you can take this C,
and place it down here, and it's still the same chord.
This is also an F major chord, it's just inverted,
and this makes it much smoother voice leaning. Now this voice just has to go:
And this middle voice only has to go up a step, whereas before everyone was jumping up a fourth.
That's called smooth voice leading. So it's the same chord progression, I chord, IV chord,
but now with smooth voice leading thanks to inversions.
Let's look at another example. What if we wanted to play the chord progression I to a vi chord? So here's our I chord again in the key of C major
and then we've learned recently that the vi chord, well, we could jump way up here. That would be very
unsmooth voice leading,
but we could go down here, which is better. Everyone just had to skip down a third, boom,
but there's an even better way to do it using inversions.
Instead of skipping down a third, what if we inverted the chord this way? Taking the bottom note A, which is the root of the chord,
flipping it up an octave to here.
This also is a vi chord. It's an inverted vi chord,
because we still have an A, a C, and an E,
but it's inverted, and you'll notice now all we have to do to get from the I chord
to the vi chord is just move that one note up a step. These two voices don't even have to change at all.
So that's very smooth voice leading to get from I to vi.
Now let's review some terminology.
In a triad, which is a chord built on thirds like this,
each note has a name. We call this the root of the chord.
It's the root, because it's the note that the triad is built on.
So C is the root, E is the third of the chord, and G is called the fifth of the chord.
Now, even if we inverted this chord and put the C up here,
C is still the root. It's like we took the tree and flipped it upside down with now the roots up in the sky.
It's kind of a silly analogy, but even if you invert a chord,
this is still considered the root.
So now we have the root on top. That's why it's called an inversion. To invert something is just to flip it or to be upside down.
We still have the third here, and the fifth of the chord down here at the bottom now.
Well the third's at the bottom, and the fifth in the middle, you could say.
So let's review the terms. Say them out loud with me as we point. Point on your screen with me. Root, say it out loud with me, root third fifth.
Now when a chord has the root on the bottom, we call that root position.
So this is a C major chord in root position, we could say.
Now if we invert the chord and take the root and put it on top,
so now the third is on the bottom like this, it's still a C major chord, but we call it first inversion.
So repeat after me. C major 1st inversion.
Good, remember we had root position C major.
Now C major 1st inversion.
Now we can also take the third of the chord and place it on top.
So now we have the fifth on the bottom, the root in the middle, and the third on top.
It's still a C E G, it's still a C major chord, but now we call this 2nd inversion.
So repeat after me: C major 2nd inversion.
Good, now what would happen if we invert the chord one more time? What if we took the fifth which is this G, and place it up here?
You should recognize this. We're back to root position. So repeat after me: C major root position.
See how we did that? Now let's invert it back down. We're going to take the G, put it on the bottom, now we're in C major 2nd inversion.
We can take the third, put it on the bottom. Now we're back in 1st inversion C major still,
and then back C down to C, we're back to root position.
every single one of those chords we just saw they were all C major chords just using different inversions.
Now let's try to play them.
It's very important as you're practicing these inversions that you follow the fingering correctly. Trust me that these fingerings have been established for
hundreds of years with keyboard players as the ideal fingering for root position chord.
Generally going to use fingers 1 3 5. So go ahead and play a C major
root position chord with your 1 3 5. Now,
we're going to invert this chord. Now, obviously you can't take your thumb and put it up there.
So what we're going to do is imagine in your mind that this C has moved up to here, but all you're going to do is shift your hand over
so your finger 1 is now going to play the third of the chord, your finger 2 is going to play the fifth of the chord, and your finger 5
will play the root like this.
So again you're playing E G C with fingers 1 2 5.
Try that. That's C major 1st inversion.
Now let's come back to root position 1 3 5.
Now kind of keep track of where this E and G are. That's going to become the new bottom two notes of the chord with fingers 1 and 2,
and the C goes on top.
I'd like you to press pause and just get comfortable going back and forth between root position and 1st inversion.
Remember, 1st inversion you should use 1 2 5. Don't use a 3. That creates an unnecessary stretch there.
It's much more comfortable for these two fingers to spread a little bit.
That's why we use a 1 2 5.
Practice going back and forth between root and 1st inversion on your own, then press play to go on.
Good, now let's practice going from 1st inversion to 2nd inversion.
For 2nd inversion, the fingering is 1 3 5. Again, trust me and use these fingerings exactly as I teach them to you.
You will be grateful down the road, okay? 1 2 5 for 1st inversion,
and now keep track of where this G and C are because they become the new bottom two notes with your fingers 1 and 3,
and we put that E on top with finger 5, okay?
So you've got that fourth here. Practice going between 1st inversion
and 2nd inversion. Remember, in both 1st inversion and 2nd version there's this fourth here.
That's how you know you're an inversion, in an inversion by the way. If you're in root position, it will be only thirds,
but when you invert a chord, it creates this fourth here.
Okay, both in 1st inversion and in 2nd inversion.
Fingering again is 1 2 5
1 3 5
Press pause to practice going between those two positions on your own, then press play to go on.
Good, now we're ready to practice going from 2nd inversion all the way up to root position.
So let's practice now going from 2nd inversion with a G on the bottom, C, the root in the middle. Throw it on top.
Back to root position. Back and forth. The fingering for both of these is 1 3 5.
1 3 5 for 2nd inversion, 1 3 5 for root position, okay?
Let's try that together. I don't think you need to press pause for this one, just try this along with me. Root position
to 2nd inversion.
to root position, we're just putting that G on the bottom for 2nd inversion.
Come back up to root.
Good, now watch how we can put all of those together. We're going to start down here on root position,
come up to 1st inversion. Remember, finger 2 is playing the middle note. Up to 2nd inversion, all the way up to root position.
Then we're going to repeat root position, come down to 2nd inversion, finger 3 in the middle,
then down to1st inversion with 2 in the middle,
and then down to root position.
Only ever playing C E and G.
Press pause to try that out a few times on your own get comfortable with that, and then press play to go on.
Good now let's try the same thing with the left hand.
Go ahead and find root position with the left hand,
then when you come up to 1st inversion, because the left hand is built opposite, as we've noticed many times, from the right hand,
you're fingering is actually going to be a little different. Remember the right hand we used a finger 2
for the middle note of 1st inversion. In the left hand, you're going to use finger 3 as your middle finger for the
1st inversion chord. So for the left hand 1st inversion, it's 5 3 1
Let's watch that again. 5 3 1 for root position, 5 3 1 for 1st inversion. Will you press pause and just practice going between
those two inversions on your own until you feel really comfortable. So your finger 1's coming all the way up putting C on top.
Press pause to try that, then press play to go on.
Okay, now let's practice going from 1st inversion with 5 3 1 on C
up to 2nd inversion. Remember, you're going to keep that fourth. Now you're going to use finger 2.
So fingers 5 and 2 are on G and C. 5 and 2, and finger 1 comes up to this E, and there's our 2nd inversion.
Okay, practice going back and forth between 1st inversion with 5 3 1,
and 2nd inversion with 5 2 1.
Practice that on your own for a few tries until you feel comfortable, and then press play to go on.
Good, and then last of all of course we're ready to go from the 2nd inversion chord back up to root position.
So try this with me. 5 2 1 on G C E,
and then we come up to root position C E G.
We're just rearranging the notes of the chord.
Practice this with me. 5 2 1 goes to 5 3 1
One more time.
Good, then we can put all of them together. Root position, 1st inversion, 2nd inversion, root position, and let's play root position again
and come back down. 5 2 1, 5 3 1, 5 3 1.
Press pause and work on that on your own.
Going from root position 1st inversion, 2nd inversion, root position, repeat root position, and then come back down.
Try that on your own, then press play to go on.
Now in your practicing you can also apply this to other chords. Like let's take the D minor chord,
which in the key of C major, would be our ii chord, right?
We can do the same thing. What would be the inversion of this root position D minor chord?
Well, all we have to do is take this D and put it on top, right? And now we have D minor first inversion,
which we'd play like this:
and then 2nd inversion would be to take this F and put it on top, which we could play like this:
I still have a D F and A.
I've just rearranged the notes, then I can take this A and put it on top to give me this chord.
And that's back to my root position chord.
So this week in you're practicing, I'd like you to try all the different diatonic chords of C major, and play them in inversions.
Like, here's a challenge for you. Show me, well, let's take the A minor, our vi chord.
Can you play that root position? Now try to show me the 1st inversion of this chord.
If you're playing this you're correct. C E A
Okay, now show me the 2nd inversion.
It should be this. E A C. Now invert it back up to root position.
See how we do that? Now when you know all of these inversions, it's going to open up a lot of new possibilities
with your chord progressions. So I encourage you to practice them
and really pay careful attention to the fingerings so you can be a chord inversion master.
Nice work learning about chord inversions today.
On your own, be sure to practice playing inversions using both your right hand and left hand,
and experiment with how you can use chord inversions to make the voice leading of your chord progressions smoother.
Happy practicing, and see you next time!
Now breathe.
Good breath.
What on earth are you all doing?
What? Mr. Hoffman said to practice our inversions.
Sheesh.
Namaste to you too.
Now, come back to your breath everyone.
Good.