Chord Inversions – Chords Upside Down

Good morning. This is Duane. Today I’d like to talk about chords upside down – chord inversions. As you get better as a piano player, it’s really necessary to start playing chords upside down because it gives you so much variety. For example, you know the C chord is like that: C, E, and G. You can also turn it upside down and play it like that. That’s called first inversion, first time you turn it upside down. That’s called second inversion, the second time you turn it upside down. If I turn it upside down again, I get the same thing I started with. In a three-note chord, there’s three inversions obviously, or three positions. There’s root position, first inversion, second inversion, back to root, first, second, root, first, second, root. In addition to playing them as a block, of course you can break them up, and so on. You can do that in both hands, obviously.

When you get to more advanced chords like extended chords, like a major seventh, it’s even more important then to turn them upside down because you get different voicings. Listen. You see, that sounds so much different than if I just played the C chord. When I turn an extended chord such as the major seventh upside down, it gives it a flavor that you just don’t get if you don’t play it inverted. I just wanted to make you aware that these inversions are available to you as a pianist no matter how complex the chord. I play a lot of six-nine chords, which are like that. It’s got a sixth in it and a ninth in it. I usually play it in first inversion. I can play it in second inversion sometimes too. I like that big sound. No matter how complex the chord is, whether you’re playing a ninth or an eleventh, think about playing upside down, your chords upside down, because it gives you so much variety and so many different sounds.

Now, if you look down right below this video to where there’s a little information, there’s a link there. That link leads to a page I wrote about inversions. It’s all spelled out for you there. I’d like you to go down there right now and click on that clink and go to that webpage and read all about that. You’ll be glad you did. Thanks for being with me, and we’ll see you again tomorrow on a different subject. Bye bye for now.

Here’s the link: https://www.playpiano.com/Articles/22-inversions.htm

Click on this link to watch this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27vuizb5BLY&feature=youtu.be

***For lots more good stuff on piano playing come on over to my website at https://www.playpiano.com and sign up for our free piano tips – “Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions!”

Here’s a great little book on chords and chord progressions on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Chords-Chord-Progressions-Exciting-ebook/dp/B0076OUGDE/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404158669&sr=1-1&keywords=piano+chords+duane+shinn

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