How to Play a Chord Voicing on the Piano

Professional piano players often add rich tonal sounds to the keys using chord voicing. Chord voicing arranges the notes of the chords in different positions, allowing for more versatility in sound on the piano. Hear and notice the different sounds you get while playing opened voiced chords versus closed voiced chords.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Know the three major notes of a chord. For example, the C chord is composed of the notes C, E and G. Learn the rest of the chords in this conceptual way.

2. Invert the chord by arranging the notes differently. For example, instead of arranging the C chord as C, E and G, have E, G or C as the bottom note. Structuring the notes this way is called open voicing, because you're spacing out the C chord.

3. Merge open and closed voicing with inversions. Using the C chord example, if we place E on the bottom, omit G, and use C with G at the top, we are producing the first inversion of C with open voicing. With closed voicing, the notes are still spread out, but the G is not eliminated.

4. Add additional notes to the chord. For instance, when playing a C chord, add on A or D, because these additional notes are in the C scale.

Resources

• Visualize the chord voicing technique.