When you are playing piano or any keyboard, you need to use your fingers with perfect ease. However, when you play with the root at the bottom, you’d need to shift your fingers around, and sometimes cross them to play the treble notes. While this can be done easily with continuous practice, the tone emitted from that might not be too pleasant and sound chopped off.
To avoid this, piano players need to use the technique of chord inversions piano. What does chord inversions in piano mean? When you rearrange the order of the notes for a specific chord to help in the process of smooth transitions between two notes, or even for enhancing the quality of a single note, the process is called chord inversion. But rearranging the chord does not affect the type of chord – major or minor.
So, what are the different types of inversions for piano? Let’s have a look at the most common chord inversions for the piano or keyboard, and how you can play them smoothly.
What is the Triad Inversion?
As the name suggests, this type of inversions works for the triads. There are three distinct types of chord inversions piano users can try with the triad notes. They are
- The root position: In this position, you group the notes in the traditional format, which is the root note, the third and the fifth note.
- The first inversion: In this type of inversion, you move the root note to the top of the chord. So, you have the third note, the fifth note, and then the root note.
- The second inversion: In this type of inversion, you move the third on top of the remaining two. However, it works in a bit different way, which is fifth note comes first, then the root, and then the third.
When you use the three inversions while you play, you will see that the sound quality becomes better automatically. If you want, you can first play the note without the chord inversion piano has, and then you play the notes with the inversion. You would see a marked difference in both the cases.
Why are Chord Inversions Used?
The primary use for chord inversions is to make the quality of the sound better, and it doesn’t change the character of the note. So, if you have a mixture of major, minor and diminished note, you will have the same even after you perform the chord inversion.
Chord inversions, though they might sound scary, are easy when you know about the chords and the quality of the notes. With practice, you’ll excel at learning chords on piano, you’ll pull up the chords and you’ll make the whole note sound smoother than before. During your practice, you can also try out the single-handed or the double-handed method of chord inversion to make the note sound better. It all depends on how good are you at performing normal chords. It is better not to start chord inversions in the first class when you are trying to learn to play the piano. Do you have any questions about chord inversions? Feel free to reach out!
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