Title pretty much says it all, whenever I try to play chords along with a chart in root position it sounds nothing like what I'd like to achieve, do you have to just develop a better ear or what? There are some songs I'd like to learn which there isn't sheet music for, but there are chord charts and I'm having a difficult time figuring out how to go about it.
Posted Oct 19, 2017, 1:38 AM UTC
Try the inbetween way of playing it. If you go from Cmaj, via a Gmaj to Amin, play the B as the root of the Gmaj inversion.
The point of charts is for you to decide as you go. Otherwise you'd just memorize sheet music. Don't aim to play like the record unless that's what your audience demands. Charts are for musicians who like discovering fresh expression night to night.
Chords notated only with a letter name are played in root position.
In music theory, the note played by the bass determines the inversion of the chord, regardless of the voicing of whatever happens on top. So for songs with inverted chords, accurate chord charts typically show chords in slash notation, such as C/E (first inversion); occasionally this might be misnotated as E minor, if the song is in C. If in fact you do know how to read this, it well may be that your chord charts are not accurate.
The other aspect of chord voicing that usually matters is the top note, or if it's an open fifth. The top note is the one you can usually listen for in the recording, and if you play a major or minor chord instead of an open fifth, the sound obviously changes fairly dramatically.
Chords notated only with a letter name are played in root position.
That's pretty simplistic - for solo playing, I agree that if the chord is G or Bb7 or F#11 then you would have a G or Bb or F# on the bottom of your stack of notes, but if you're splitting the chord between two hands with the melody note on top the order of the other notes is entirely up to the player. Even with just the left hand, you could play the bass note on its own and then jump up to any inversion/arrangement of that chord that you wanted to play. If you're playing with a bass player you needn't include the root at all.
Yeah, I assumed OP isn't playing with a bass player.
Also, let's say you're playing a C chord. If your left hand plays a C on the bottom, it doesn't matter what else you play in the right hand. You are, by definition, playing in root position as far as theory is concerned. Any C chord with an E on the bottom is in first inversion. Any C chord with a G on the bottom is in second inversion.
There is a great variety in what you can do with the right hand. On this, we don't disagree. However, any changes you make to the right hand are fairly inconsequential compared to changing the note in the bass in terms of the OVERALL sonic effect.
In this image, I illustrate a number of varieties of chord voicings in each inversion--notice that some of the right hand voicings are mostly the same between different inversions, determined by the bass. https://imgur.com/gltpunk
There's two things there, bass note and chord inversion. It's entirely possible and not uncommon to play a C bass note with a second inversion G C E above it. Playing piano it's rare just to play a C triad with the left hand and nothing else - a player is more likely to play a bass note and then some form of chord notes above that, over the timespan of a bar/measure anyway. And someone with a good stretch could play C G E, which isn't an inversion at all.
I wouldn't think of C/G as a third inversion, I'd think of it as a C major chord (however you want to play it) with a G on the bass. It's just a special case of things like C/D and C/F# where it happens to only include the three notes of the triad.
Anyway, I think this is getting away from the OP's problem as I think he's talking about voicings rather than simply inversions, which are more limited. If an experienced jazz player saw G7 they're just as likely to play FABE as GBDF.
This is extremely helpful, thanks! I had no idea that the bass note determines the inversion.
It doesn't, in general practice, otherwise jazz players would rarely play anything but first inversions.
edit: it does when talking about triads, but shouldn't when reading chord symbols from lead sheets.
Play whatever inversion is closest to the last chord. As long as you have the proper root in the left hand dont worry about your right hand inversion too much.