How to Read Piano Chord Inversions

Learning how to read piano chord inversions is an important part of learning to read music and play the piano. The better you are at reading music, the better a piano player you will become. Knowing how to read chord inversions will also give you the ability to write music and create beautiful sounds of your own.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Understand what piano chord inversions are. They are the chords upside down, which causes a transitioning of the notes within a chord to make them closer together, not only in proximity, but also in sound. This can bring a little ease to your fingers and more fluidity to the songs you play.

2. Find an inversion by starting with the C chord, it can be played different ways. Instead of starting on C, start on E, then move to G and then C. This is the first inversion. The second inversion would be starting with G, then C and E.

3. Move to the G chord and practice the root, first inversion and second inversion there. It would be G, B, D for the root. Start with B for the first inversion and D for the second inversion. It would look like this: first inversion B, D, and G; second inversion D, G, and B.

4. Practice these a few times to get the hang of the inversion method of playing. It should make the songs sound better and make them easier to play since your fingers consistently stay closer together.