How To Memorize Every Major & Minor Chord INVERSION On Piano

the basic major and minor chord inversion positions are something that all piano players like yourself need to work towards learning fluently to the point where they're just in your fingers and you can find them without hesitation but getting to that point can seem like a lot all the shapes are confusing and with that many chords it can feel overwhelming so I want to share with you a simple system a tried and tested method that I use with students to help make this achievable for everyone here's the system it consists of three steps it's very practical it's a mix of visual learning with some key bits of basic music theory to help us first of all we're going to essentially Harve the amount of chords that you need to memorize because we're going to learn how to switch any cord inversion position between major and minor that way if you learn one you can find the other one the second thing that's going to help us find these chords more easily is paying close attention to the shape of a root position versus a first and second inversion and the last thing is really important to help make this whole thing more manageable and avoid that common issue of getting all the different chords mixed up we're going to organize the different chords into four groups all the chords inside each group are going to be easier to learn together because they look alike and then throughout the video we're going to focus on one group at a time and by the way I've written out each group for you in the pinned comment below so you can copy that because over a period of time you're going to want to go away and practice one group at a time moving on to the next group once you've got the previous group nailed the first group is the simplest place to start and that's with the chords that only use white keys in this group we're going to look at c f and g major as well as D E and A minor this is a C major chord and we call this root position this is a C major in first inversion all I've done is taken the root position and I've moved the C to the top I've just rearranged the order of the three notes within the chord so it's still the same chord and we can do that kind of thing with any chord and now if I move the e to the E above then here is a C major in second inversion it's just another way to arrange the three notes we use these three positions all the time playing piano and the main way people usually practice them to begin with is by running them up and down like this for every chord which is a great starting point and I still want you to do that but the issue you can still run in with is not being able to find one of the inversion positions straight away without running through the order to get there because that's how you've gotten used to finding them but practically speaking when we're actually playing music that's no good we have to be able to find the one we need straight away let me know in the comments below what does your cord practice look like is there anything that you're working on at the moment or are there any chords that you particularly find difficult root positions are really an even looking shape so it's the same spacing from here to here as it is from here to to here we actually call this spacing a third so it's 1 2 three white keys and then from here to here is also three white keys 1 2 3 if we look at F major it's the same 1 2 3 1 2 3 and so is D Minor 1 2 3 1 2 3 now if we look at that first inversion of C major again this is uneven to look at we have a third here still but we have a larger Gap here of a fourth 1 2 3 4 so the most important thing to help you find these positions more easily and straight away is to think about how the shape of it looks as well as where the root is in each one in our root position chord the root c c is the root of a c chord it's on the bottom and in first inversion we moved it to the top so first inversions the root is at the top think about what you already do when you find a root position let's say you're finding E minor first you spot the root on the piano the E and then you play the chord from there so I like to call this the bottom up shape you find the root and then you build the rest of the chord above it we just need to apply the same thought to other positions so our C major first first inversion we said has the root at the top so let's call this the top down shape because you would locate the root to find this cord straight away you locate the roote and remember the rest of the shape is underneath so you're going from the top down so an F major first inversion would be this F at the top and then I've made that same shape underneath still got a fourth here and a third here or an E minor chord located the E on the top and then I've built the shape underneath I've still got a fourth here and a third here all the first inversions in this group look like the same shape as each other on the keyboard to so moving on to a second inversion this shape is the other way around so so here's our C major second inversion position again this one has the bigger gap of a fourth here instead and the third is above it's the opposite way round to a first inversion shape and now the root C is in the middle so let's call this one the middle around position if you were to find this chord straight away You' locate the root C and then you create that shape around the C build the rest of the shape around the C for F major you'd find the F and then you'd build the shape around it see it's the same shape as the C was the fourth is on the bottom the fourth is still on the bottom and the third is on top with an E minor you'd find the E and you'd build that same shape around the e e all the second inversion chords look like the same shape as each other as well the first thing to practice is all the chords in this group these are some simple but fundamental ways you should practice and you can use these methods for all the groups in the video running the positions up and down like I showed you earlier is a good starting point then you want to practice for a more real life situation by finding the first inversions and second inversions in each group straight away you can play through all the chords in each group and it's helpful if you can get someone to test you by calling out random chords to find or you could write out a random sequence to follow when this feels easy you can then try mixing multiple groups together we can come up with more creative and musical things too I have some really cool helpful exercises I want to show you in the future but I suggest just starting here with the basics and the other thing is changing each chord back and forth between major and minor which we're going to look at next and I want to point out that these shap shapes are going to help us learn to read chords as well but I will do a separate video focused on that that's the first group and now all those chords we've learned are going to help us find all the chords in the second group by switching them between major and minor so now we're going to find CF and G minor as well as d e and a major but there's one more really important thing we need to do first we need to label each note in all these chords alog together each chord needs a root a third and a fifth just quickly though if this video has been helpful for you so far then please give it a thumbs up cuz that really does help in a C major chord c is the root and in root position it's on the bottom that makes the E the third because it's three letters away from the c c d e you see it's three white keys along as well 1 2 3 it's also three notes through the c major scale 1 2 3 and then we call the G the fifth because it's five letters from the root that's how it works it's five away from the starting point the root 1 2 3 4 5 or C D E F G so however we spread those notes around now let's say I'm playing a first inversion we're still going to call C the root wherever it is we're still going to call E the3 wherever it is and we're still going to call G the 5th wherever it is and that works the same for all these chords if I'm playing a D minor chord I'm going to call D the root I'm going to call F the thir and I'm going to call a the 5ifth the root 3D and fifth are what we call intervals now we can turn any of these root position major chords into minor chords simply by lowering the middle note by by one semmit tone or one half step that means the same thing if we take a C major chord and we lower the e a half step to E flat it becomes C minor lowering the a in an F major chord to a flat creates an F minor chord and lowering the b in a G major chord to B flat gives us a G minor chord the note we lowered in each time is the third in the chord more specifically though in a major chord we actually call this a major third and when we lower it by a half step in A minor chord we call that the minor third the major third was four half steps from the rot so starting here I go 1 2 3 four half steps and then the minor third is only three half steps it's small smaller so from the Route 1 2 3 I've moved three half steps up but we need to do this when we're using inversion positions the only difference is that the third is no longer the middle note like it was in root position in a first inversion it's now on the bottom the root is on the top now loops around and the third is on the bottom so this goes from major to minor like this C major C minor I'm still just moving the e to the E flat the third has gone down a half step the only thing that's changed is where the C is you still e is going down to E flat in root position and E is still going down to E flat in first inversion so the trick is to know where the third is this is F major in first inversion so the third is a this time the third's on the bottom remember so that's the one we moved down a down to a flat so that's F major first inversion that's F minor first inversion so it makes sense now how if you already have one memorized you can easily see the other one if you know how to change it if I can find G major first inversion confidently then I can also find G minor by lowering the third and as you would have noticed those three chords all look similar because they each had a black key on the bottom so what does that look like with second inversions well let's go back to our C major second inversion we already know the root C was in the middle that means the third is on top because it goes root third the fifth would be there but it's underneath now and it's still just e to E flat I need to change the major third moving to the minor third it's just that the notes are in a different order now so that third the E is on top this time for F major that would be the A on top moving down to a flat that gives us F minor and for G that would be the B on top moving down to B flat by the way I've also written finger suggestions in the pin comment to and if you're struggling to actually play any of these chords it might be a technical issue I do have a video on hand positioning which you'll probably find quite useful I'll link that in the description so a good way to practice as well as jumping through the inversions of let's say C minor which is good to try first you can also practice changing the inversions back and forth so root position major minor first inversion major minor second inversion major and minor and you can try that with all the chords so you only have to memorize one pattern but it works for all 12 chords and if you've already learned a minor chord you do the same thing think about where the third is but this time you just raise it and that gives you a major chord if we want to change this E minor to E major we raise the middle note G the third we raise it by a half step to G Shar G was the minor third from e is three half steps away 1 2 3 and G Shar is a major third four half steps away 1 2 3 4 so from a first inversion of E minor we still need to move the note G it's just on the bottom now it was in the middle but now it's on the bottom so we raised that up to G Shar and that gives us our E major chord E minor E major and in second inversion remember the third is on top so we raise the top note from the minor third to the major third takes us from E minor to E major E minor E major same thing with D Minor would look like this in root position the Third in the middle so that's the one we move up in first inversion the third is on the bottom so that's the one we move up and in second inversion the thir is on the top so that's the one we move up by the way I do have a very indepth guide on inversions and slash chords with all this information and tons more there's a giant glossery of all the major and minor chords in there and that's actually part of a chords bundle with two other guides if you want to learn all about chords properly these are going to be perfect for you and there's a link to my website down below where you can check those out so in the third group we're going to start with D flat major E flat major and a flat major because they all look alike and then we're going to turn them into minor chords they're all black white black which I often describe as upside down triangle shapes you see how a major was kind of like a triangle shape if you connected the notes where a flat major is the opposite it's kind of like an upside down triangle the thing to watch out for with this a flat and with this d flat chord is that there's two white notes next to each other in the middle here with no black key in between and people often get these mixed up when they're playing so if you play the the wrong one that changes it from major to minor the easiest thing to remember is that for the major chord you want the note that's further that way and then for a minor chord you want the note that's further that way and it's the same deal with a flat major 2 the one to the right is the major third you want for a major chord and the one to the left is the minor third you want for a minor chord and we need to be aware of that when we're doing the same thing with inversions too now E flat is slightly different because if we play E flat major a half step below the middle one we actually do have a black key this time so E flat minor only has black keys in it okay so if we start with D flat major in first inversion here's the root position put the bottom one on the top that gives us d flat major first inversion now whilst of course it looks different because we've got a different mixture of black and white keys and that's what can make this stuff visually confusing when you're a beginner but if you look you can still see the shape we talked about on the white keys so here's a C major first inversion we've got the fourth and the third well you can still see the fourth here it's just a black key fourth instead of a white key fourth it still feels like the same distance between your fingers as well and then we just have to remember which white key to use on the bottom it's not going to be G that all that looks wrong that looks too squished this is the one we want and remember we said out of these two it's the one over this side for a major chord we still use the top down method we find the d flat and we build the rest of the chord shape underneath and then we can move our thumb down a half step if we want to find the minor version of that chord major minor because the third is on the bottom now now we can call this a d flat minor chord in practice you're more commonly going to come across this being named a c Shar minor instead either way it's the same keys on the piano it looks the same and we're just focusing on the shapes and the Practical side in this video we're not going to get into the note spelling at the same time I've got other videos on that now I want you to remember that you need to practice one group at a time for a good reason practice the chords in this group once you've nailed the previous two because they're quite different looking so trying to do them all at once is a sure far way to get yourself mixed up let's look at a second Inversion from the first inversion put the bottom note on the top remember this is the middle around shape so the d flat the route is in the middle and we've built the shape around it we've still got that fourth but it's on the bottom now and then the third is here so this is the major version and then if we lower that that top note we've got the minor version major minor these two look very similar to each other just got to be very careful about which third you use that's going to look exactly the same on an A flat root position major to minor first inversion major to minor second inversion major to minor [Music] the E flat Majors look very similar but the minors remember only have black keys so the first inversion of that the third's on the bottom as always lower it we get all black keys but now cool thing about this is it does look like one of our white key shapes but just on the Black Keys there's an E minor first inversion if we lower all the notes flatten all the notes you get E flat first inversion they look the same here's E flat major second inversion the third is on top now lower it you get E flat minor second inversion which looks like E minor second inversion but below on The Black Keys so the chords in the final group actually do look different from each other they're the odd ones out which is why I've grouped them together at the end but we're still going to use the same method of learning the major chords and then turning them into minor chords the chords left in the last group are G flat B and B flat and we're going to look at the major and minor versions of each we're going to start with g flat major you'll also see this called FSH major but we're just going to stick with one name for this video now the thing about this chord is it's only got black keys in it okay so if you compare it to a G major it looks like the same shape but just on the Black Keys below so if that's g flat major in root position we lower the third in the middle to give us G flat minor back to g flat major we turn that into a first inversion put the root on the top okay so this is the top down shape the root is on the top and I've still got that first inversion shape I've got my fourth here and my third there it actually looked like it does on the white keys you can still see that shape clearly it's just on Black Keys instead of white keys so that's G Major G flat major flattened all the notes so if you learn that one first you can find the minor version by lowering the third which is now on the bottom there's g flat minor back to g flat major back to g flat minor okay so looking at g flat major second inversion see we've got our second inversion shape middle around the root is in the middle g flat and then we've got this shape built around it the fourth here and the third is there you see it looks like a G major second inversion but lowered remember the third is on top now so we just lower that one to give us g flat minor and as always practice going back back and fourth B and B flat do look a little bit different so they might need a little bit more work you might need to spend a bit more time on these ones so if we look at B major in rout position we're going to move that straight up to First inversion again I've just switched the bottom note for the top note and we've still got our fourth on top and our third here this just looks a bit different because it's a black and white fourth now but if you compare it to C well the fourth here was 1 2 3 4 5 half steps and if we go back to the B it's actually still five half steps so from here 1 2 3 4 five we've moved five half steps it just looks different cuz it's a black note to a white note so once you know B major you can move the third down which you know is on the bottom down a half step you got B minor as well well and then for second inversion put that one on the top gives you second inversion still got our middle around shape the B is in the middle of the rote our fourth we just looked at is on the bottom now and our third is on top so that's the one you change if you want to change it to B minor B major B minor B major and finally we've got B flat major so there's root position and if I switch which that B flat for that B flat I've got first inversion and that still gives us our top down shape we've got the root on top and then we've got the first inversion shape it just is a bit harder to see this time because again we've got a different looking fourth than you've come across we've got a white note to a black note but it is still a fourth it's still five half steps so if I count from there to there I've going to move I've got to move one 2 three four five half steps and once you've learned that you know where the third is lower it down now you've got B flat minor as well you've learned B flat major but you've gained B flat minor as well okay let's look at B flat major in second inversion still a second inversion shape middle around roots in the middle that fourth is here now it's the lower part and then the the Third third is on top okay so the note D the third is on top this is a major chord so if we lower that we get B flat minor B flat major and B flat [Music] minor I hope that was helpful please let me know in the comments if it was next up you should watch this video which is for anyone who's struggling to get their hands coordinated together on piano over on patreon I'm going to be posting ing a companion video to this one looking at diminished chords and augmented chords there's a link for that below and if you want to see more videos like this then make sure to click subscribe and the notifications Bell thanks for watching

Channel: Piano From Scratch

Views: 196,547

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Id: 7WvJzzVwD-o

Length: 26min 40sec (1600 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 05 2023