Hello everyone!
I wanted to share some new ideas to work with. A lot of modern music is built upon a few chords moving in a progression, then looped. In order to make these types of patterns more interesting, we need to develop arrangement techniques. The concept I'd like to show you today is called chord inversions.
To listen to the original song follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNKu1uNBVkU
Note that this has been transposed down a half step from C# to C for beginners. We'll use a C major chord as an example. Simple chords (called triads) are built of three parts.
The Root (C)
The Third (E)
The Fifth (G)
These titles are taken from each note's position in the C Major Scale.
C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 octave
Each chord's Root, third and fifth will be related to its parent scale. So A minor's tones would be Root (A)
3rd (C)
5th (E)
A B C D E F G A
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 octave
If you play through the first example, all four chords are in root position, which means that your right hand is shifting for each chord. That's a lot of unnecessary motion. It sounds bland as well. If we try to fix it by rearranging the chord tones into an inversion, it creates different colors, but it doesn't solve our shifting issues. Once we're comfortable with all of our inversions we can combine them to create parts that move smoothly. This is called voice leading. It's a technique that developed from choral arrangements far back in the past.
I would suggest that you play through this progression in all inversions, then try to play the mature voice leading example at the bottom. See if you can identify the inversions that each of the chords are in. Notice how close to the original chord your Right Hand stays. It sounds less scattered and is easier to play!
Enjoy the process. Keep playing!
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