Practicing Major Triads & Inversions Series 3

Description

This is where things get interesting!

In this lesson I show how to incorporate all three chord voicings we've learned thus far: root position, first inversion and second inversion.

The guiding principle here is a technical music theory term known as close harmony.

Close harmony is a method of organizing chord voices to achieve the minimal possible motion while moving from chord to chord. So, rather than jump from chord to chord using the same shape, we learn to create more musical options by mixing chord shapes while we change chords.

We'll start with the second inversion A major chord. The closest possible D major chord is a first inversion chord. Again it has a common tone A, and the other two notes of the chord move minimally; one note moves up a half-step and another moves up a whole-step. Pitchwise, from low to high, we get:

E to F# - up whole-step (2 frets)

A to A - same pitch

C# to D - up half-step (1 fret)

We move back to the A major chord. Next we look for the closest possible E major chord. This happens to be the root position E major below the A major. Again, the note E is a common tone. The other two notes of the chord move minimally. One note moves down a whole-step and another moves down a half-step. Pitchwise, from low to high, we get:

E to E - same pitch

A to G# - down half-step (1 fret)

C# to B - down whole-step (2 frets)

This is a very powerful musical technique that has incredibly wide ranging implications, applications and potential.