Piano Cheats

Honestly, you don’t have to know about inversions to play a song. However, being familiar with the different inversions of a chord will be extremely useful for your hand’s movement, from one chord to another.

There are 3 different inversions for a chord. These are called the root position, the 1^st inversion and the 2^nd inversion.

The root position of a C chord is when the “doe”, “me”, and “so” of the C chords are in this order: the “doe” note (1) followed by the “me” note (3) and followed by the “so” note, i.e., 1-3-5 (doe-me-so)

Figures 1: C in the root position

The 1^st inversion of a C chord is when the chord is formed with the 3 notes in this order: the “me” note (3) followed by the “so” note (5) and followed by the “doe” (1) note, i.e., 3-5-1 (me-so-doe)

Figure 2: C in the 1^st inversion

The 2^nd inversion of a Chord is when the chord is formed with the 3 notes in this order: the “so” note (5) followed by the “doe” note (1) and followed by the “me” (3) note, i.e., 5-1-3 (so-doe-me)

Figure 3: C in the 2^nd inversion

Similarly the 3 inversions for an F chord would look like the following:

Figure 4: F in the root position

Figure 5: F in the 1^st inversion

Figure 6: F in the 2^nd inversion

Imagine playing a song with the following series of chords: C – F – C – G – C

It would be rather awkward to move your right hand from the root position of the C chord to that of an F chord, for instance. I would play the series like this:

C in the root position…

…followed by F in the 2^nd inversion (so that I wouldn’t have to move my thumb)…

… then back to C in it’s root position (again without having to move my thumb)…

… then the G chord in the 1^st inversion (so that I wouldn’t have to move my little finger)…

… then return to C again in it’s root position without moving the little finger…

I hope this explains what inversions are and their usefulness. Now, since most songs can be played with the 3 basic chords in a key: I, IV and V chords, you should try to be familiar with the different inversions of these 3 chords. They will be tremendously helpful in playing many other chords within the same key.

Tags: chord, inversion, piano

One thing I didn’t mention on “The 3 Basic Chords” post is that, to play a song using chords, usually the chords are played with the right hand, while the left hand plays the “bass” notes.

A question one may ask is, “then with which hand is the melody played?” There are 2 answers to this question. Firstly, you can sing the melody. Secondly, you can play the melody with the right hand also. You will find that after a while, when you are familiar with playing chords and especially the different ways to combine chords, it is indeed much easier to play the melody than if you didn’t know the chords. But that will take time and experience. Let’s leave this till much later.

For the moment, let’s come back to the question about what we should play on the left hand while the right hand is playing a chord. The simplest thing to play on your left hand is just this – one note. Period.

That is, if the chord on the right hand is C, then play the C note on the left hand. Similarly, if the chord on the right hand is an F, then simply play the F note on the left hand. You can choose to play just one note or to play an octave. Put simply, it means 2 “doe” notes that are separated by one set of “re”, “me”, “fa”, “so”, “la”, “ti” notes in between. Figure 1 below shows the C octave. Note that 2 notes are played at the same time, a lower C and a higher C.

Figure 1: C octave

Does it matter which lower C and which higher C your left hand should be playing? That’s a good question. In fact, the same question should be asked about the chord on the right hand, i.e., how far on the right of the piano/keyboard should you place your right hand to play a chord? I know this may not sound like a good answer but I can only say “it depends”! It’s a matter of how it sounds to you. It’s like adjusting the treble and bass levels on any of your sound systems, be it a radio, mp3 player, car stereo system, or a home hi-fi. Different people like different settings. So if you find the bass notes you play with the left hand are too “bassy”, then shift your hands further to the right to play higher notes. The same principle applies for the chord on the right hand.

Another thing you can do on your left hand is to play what some call “broken chords”. But I think I will reserve this for another lesson.

So much for now.

Tags: chord, left hand, octave

This may be surprising to some people, but in fact most songs can be played with just 3 chords! The 3 chords are the I, IV and V chords of any key.

For example, in the key of C, these 3 chords are:

I - C,

IV - F, and

V - G.

If we were in the key of A, these 3 chords would then be A, D and E respectively. That is because in the A scale, A is the 1st note (I), D is the 4th note (IV), and E is the 5th (V) note.

Perhaps the above is oversimplified, but I hope you will get used to it, because after all the idea here is to try learning to play the piano the simplest way.

For those who would like things to be politically correct, the 3 chords we mean here are C major, F major, and G major.

And for those who have never played any chords before, a major chord simply means playing the “doe”, “me”, “so” notes together. Therefore, a C major chord is made up of the C, E and G notes (because C is the “doe”, E the “me” and G the “so” of the C major scale).

Similarly an F chord is made up of F, A and C notes (because F is the “doe”, A the “me” and C the “so” of F major scale).

In the same manner, G chord comprises G, B and D notes (because G is the “doe”, B the “me” and D the “so” of the G major scale).

The pictures below illustrate the C, F and G chords:

Figure 1: C Major chord

Figure 2: F Major chord

Figure 3: G Major chord

I guess this is enough for now.

Tags: basic chords, chord, key