How to Play a 154 1st Inversion Chord for Voicing

Using chord inversions in your songs can make them sound balanced and fresh. With the right voicing, you can seamlessly stitch together these inversions, grounding your melodies and background instruments in a solid harmonic progression. The I-V-IV chord progression's one of the most prominent progressions in contemporary music, especially blues and rock. To spice it up, try starting the sequence in first inversion.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Pick a key for your progression. For simplicity's sake, use the white-note chords of C-Major.

2. Place your fingers on the I chord, which in this case is C-Major (C, E and G).

3. Shift your fingers up to play the chord in first inversion. Instead of starting on C, the new chord starts on E, followed by G and then the C an octave higher than before.

4. Move onto the V chord, which in the key of C is G-Major. For the best voice leading, play the chord in second inversion (D, G and then B).

5. Strike the last chord in the progression, which is the IV chord. This is F-Major in our chosen key, but we'll need to play it in second inversion for the best voicing. The notes go C, F and then A.

6. Return to the I chord, but instead of playing it in first inversion like you did before, play it in root position. The notes should go C, E and then G.

Tips & Warnings

• When you play the progression using inversions, your fingers won't have to cover as much of the keyboard as they normally would.