Freeing Your Piano Playing From Inversions

1. What Are Inversions? 🤷🏻‍♂️

Inversions are a music theory concept that is widely taught to music students as a way of understanding that the notes that make up a chord can be moved around.

The lesson usually looks something like this:

A normal triad consists of three notes, an example of this is the chord of C major (C E G). Playing this chord in that order is a “root position” triad. However, we can move these notes around! If we place the C at the top instead (E G C) this is still a C major triad, however this time it is in “1st Inversion”. We can then do the same again and reorder the notes to (G C E) and this would become a “2nd Inversion” triad.

However, while understanding that chords don’t need to be static, playing these very specific inversion shapes can sometimes become a hinderance and doesn’t actually help us understand what an inversion really is.

2. Why They Are Useful 👍

So why are inversions taught like this and what purpose does it serve?

Well there are some very common patterns that we play on the piano that use these shapes. An example of this would be the concept of “broken chords”. Broken chords are where we break a chord into its individual notes and then play through each inversion.

For example; C E G, E G C, G C E, C E G ect..

Learning this particular shapes on an instrument like the piano can also be useful if you want to play chords on the piano quickly…if you already have some defined shapes on the piano that you are familiar with then you can find the chords easily. Let’s say you play a C chord (C E G) and you want to find the nearest way of playing a G chord (G B D), this becomes much easier if you are familiar with the different inversions.

So there are some very useful reasons to learn inversions and they can help you when you are looking for a way of playing chords across the piano.

3. Why They Aren’t Useful 👎

However, many learning students can get trapped into thinking of chords as shapes rather than a set of notes. If we have a C major chord (C E G), as long as we play the component notes anywhere on the piano…we are still playing a C major chord. This means that there are a lot of different way to play a chord. Relying on learning chord shapes and inversions can prevent us from thinking of chords as the notes that make up that chord and therefore limit the way in which we find chords on the piano.

The piano is a very visual instrument which makes learning music theory much easier on the piano. On a guitar (for example) playing a C chord isn’t as theoretically straightforward as on the piano. This is because to play conventional chord shapes on the guitar you don’t usually play a single C, E and a G. You repeat notes and play them in an unusual order due to the 6 strings that a guitar has and needing to be able to reach the notes easily.

Many learning guitarists will know that learning chords on the guitar is (at the beginning at least) much more an exercise in remembering shapes…and this is largely why pianists have an advantage when it comes to understanding music. We can see the scale and what makes a chord much more easily. However, learning shapes in the same way a guitarist would comes with the same issue; its memorising a hand shape rather than the theory that will help you play a much greater array of things on the piano.

Inversions can also be a little deceptive because inversions don’t really refer to a shape on the piano. An inversion simply tells us that a chord is “inverted” and so the bass note (the lowest note) is now different. A C major chord with an E in the bass is a “1st Inversion C major chord” regardless of what order the notes are above that lowest note and how many of those notes are repeated. To me, this is a much more fundamental piece of information to understand, because it has a greater impact on the feeling of the chord. Playing a C major chord with an E in the bass has a very distinct and weaker quality of sound. This way of understanding inversions also isn’t reliant on memorising hand shapes, but the theory concept itself!

Learning inversion shapes isn’t inherently a bad thing…they are indeed very useful to learn. However, if you find yourself struggling to play chords on the piano that aren’t in a predefined shape, then experimenting with finding unique and interesting ways of playing the notes that make up a chord might be a great way to expand your learning!

Matthew Cawood

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