Four Note Triad Inversions | How To Make Them Fun & Interesting

If you've ever had traditional piano lessons, it's likely that you've been exposed to studying chord inversions at one time or another. Major and minor triads are the most common chords to study inversions. In case you're not familiar with chord inversions, I'll share with you some very simple illustrations.

A triad being a three note chord can be either Major or minor.

They can be played in either:

Root position

1st Inversion

2nd Inversion

Triad inversions are simple to understand and with a little repetition, can be easy to execute. Chords aren't always played in root position because a player may need to accommodate a melody note or simply need a voicing for a particular sound. And as you may know, the melody note has to be played atop the chord.

Doubling notes of the chord in octaves fills in the chord and gives it a slightly different dynamic. If you've ever listened to traditional Gospel piano, you may have noticed chords are often voiced this way. That itself is good reason to be proficient in playing triads in octaves.

Even though a triad is a three note chord (tri meaning three), they're still recognized as triads even if you double any of the notes within them.

Take C Major as an example:

C Major root in octaves

C Major 3rds in octaves

C Major 5ths in octaves

Now that we have good definition of these four note triads, how can we make them more intersting and fun to learn while we're playing them? There's a lot of options and we'll take a look at just one of them today.

Let's start off by playing our first four note triad in our right hand with the root in octaves, while also playing the root of the chord in our left hand.

From there, we'll invert our right hand triad to play the 3rd in octaves while our left hand moves down to the dominant 7th tone (B flat)

Our last chord from this cycle will be inverted to play the 5th in octaves while the left hand moves down to the 6th of the chord.

Didn't that sound somewhat musical? That's actually the whole point. Learning is not fun or productive unless we're making music. But where do we go from here? The last chord in our example outlines an A minor 7 chord because of the A in the bass. So we're going to use that note to take us in a circular direction.

I'm referring to the circle of 5ths. And if you're familiar with it, you know that D follows A on the circle.So we'll start our chord cycle all over again with D Major using the same structure.

From there, we'll invert our right hand triad to play the 3rd in octaves while our left hand moves down to the dominant 7th tone (C)The last chord from this cycle will be inverted to play the 5th in octaves while the left hand moves down to the 6th of the chord (B).Let me quiz you on where we go next. If B is in our left hand and we're moving up a fourth interval, what chord would we start on in our next chord cycle? Take a look at the circle of 5ths.

If you guessed E Major, you're right on track. This simple chord movement with alternate bass notes is a musical and fun way to get you to study intervals and keeps you engaged. It's also only scratching the surface of studying intervals. What variations of these patterns and movements can you come up with on your own?  Experiment and it will become fun and interesting as you progress and make discoveries.

Until next time, Go Play!