 Hi guys this is Jason here from the Nathaniel School of Music and in this lesson let's learn how to pretty much play any chord progression given to you on the piano in the most professional sounding way where all the notes feel very connected with each other as well as a super efficient way or I would say the easiest possible way which we learn on the piano called as chord inversions. So let's get started right away by forming a chord progression. So the chord progression which I am going to choose is 1, 4, 1, 5. So chord progression when we write it with these Roman numbers as we find is that can work on any scale. I think let's do G major, G major has one sharp, F sharp. So the first thing I like to do when building chords within the scale is to first write it down in a neat round circle so that you can easily form your triads. You can look at the circle and if you don't know your triads you can easily figure out right. G major chord is G, B, D and how do you get that? You skip the A and then get the B then how do you get the D after the B you skip the C. So it's a lot more visually understandable by writing it in a circle. After you've written down the notes of the scale in a circle you could write down all the available chords. The available chords of any major scale are major, minor and diminished. The major chords in any major scale are 1, 4, 5 and why we write them in Romans is because any major scale this sort of holds good. So the 1 of the G major scale happens to be G major because it's a 1. The 4 of the G major scale is the C, G, A, B, C which is the 4 and then the 5 will be D, G, A, B, C, D and now you want to find the minor chords. The minor chords are built with the 2 degree, the 3 degree and the 6 degree. The 2 degree happens to be A minor. We call it minor because it has a different interval relationship and thus a very different tonality or a different emotion. So A minor is the 2, B minor is the 3 if you're counting B is the third of G and then E minor will be the 6 because it's the 6th from G and then you have the lone diminished chord which we seldom use but it's good to write it and keep it waiting for us that's the F sharp diminished chord. So for today's class we're going to do the 1, 4, 1, 5 chord progression. In other words just the major chords. So let's write down the major chords of the G major scale under the Roman numbers. What are they? G, C, G and D, G major, C major, G major, D major. And what I'd also like you to do is write down the notes of the chord. You could write down the notes of the chord again in a neat round circle. G, B, D and then you have the C major chord which is C, E, G then you come back G, B, D and then you end with D, F sharp A which creates the chord progression cycle. Normally in a normal world you'd find the chord G, B, D on the piano and it'll look really symmetric. So you go G, B, D, C, E, G, you see the problem right? The right hand has to go even higher here and all the three notes have to change. Your fingers change position and it also does not sound good. Instead of doing that you could figure out an easier way to play the chords which I'm going to show you. So to form the chord inversions as we say, what we need to do is just figure out all the ways in which you can play these chords. So you have G major which is G, B, D. So one way you could play it is G, B, D in the order of occurrence of the note. So you'll have G then you'll have B and you'll have D. However, you can also play it as B, D, G where you start with B, D, G, this creates another shape. But the same vibe it still sounds major and then you do D, G, B. And with all of these positions or shapes as we call them you would need to play G in your left hand. Otherwise mentioned that closes the sound. That's what a major chord will sound like. So you could adopt the same process now to write down the other chords. Let's do that together. So you have C major which is C, E, G, the default shape as we call it you can also go E, G, C or you could go G, C, E or if you like playing it higher G, C, E. And then after that you come back to the original chord where you started which is G, B, D then you have the shapes B, D, G and then you have D, G, B to play the G major chord. And lastly you have the five chord which is D major which is D F sharp A, let's build the shapes together D F sharp A which is D F sharp A and then you go F sharp A D which is this and then A D F sharp. With all of these chords you need to play the bass note keeping the root of the chord in mind. So G major bass is G, C major bass is C, D major bass is D. Whichever shape you play on the piano the bass remains exactly the same. So now why do we have all these shapes? We have these shapes so that it's going to make it super easy for us to shift between our chords. So I'm going to just start with G, B, D on the piano. Now as I discussed earlier going from G, B, D to C, E, G is a lot of a challenge. You have to shift a lot so we need to find a way to shift better. So the trick which I have for you guys is to figure out or plot out which is the common note between the two chords. Between G major and C major if you observe the common note is G. You have G, B, D. If I start here then this shape becomes useless. G, B, D, C, E, G this shape becomes absolutely useless. So instead what I could do is try out some of the other shapes. So if I do G, B, D, E, G, C that's also too far away or if I play it here also it's a bit tough. So that leaves us with G, B, D, G, C, E and then you come back. So this is your shift. So just try to get used to this shift. Try whichever finger works for you, you could try 1, 2, 3 and 1, 4, 5 or whatever works. Just muscle that in and in the left hand you need to play the roots of each chord. It's pretty much it. Okay, so I do G, B, D, G, C, E back to G, B, D and now let's follow the trick to go to D major. What is in common between G major and D major? You'll find that D is in common. So whenever the D is in common it's quite obvious that you don't want to change this finger which is on D. So just keep the D and find a shape which has D at the top end of the chord which happens to be F sharp A, D. Okay, so you'll have to sneak your thumb in there or maybe use your index finger if you think that works. So the chords are G, B, D, G, C, E, G, B, D, F sharp A, D, G. Now you may think you know I am done job over but actually you can consider the other starting point. So instead of doing G, B, D you could also start with the other option. Before we do that let's just map this out. So G, B, D going to G, C, E back to G, B, D and then D is in common. So you put a shape where D is at the top end F sharp A, D and then play it together. So now what if I start with B, D, G okay which is here on the piano. So earlier we played this shape G, B, D now we are playing this shape. So if I start with the B, D, G shape again G is in common. So you go C, E, G then B, D, G, A, D, F sharp this is actually a lot easier if you ask me C, E, G, B, D, G, A, D, F sharp this is actually a lot easier than starting with this thing G, B, D right. So you need to figure this out by writing it that's very, very important. So you go B, D, G, C, E, G, B, D, G because G is still in common and last chord A, D, F sharp because D is in common and D was in the center okay so that's B, D, G, C, E, G, B, D, G and then what do we do last A, D, F sharp and that's the second pathway the left hand stays the same. So I quite like this a lot better than the last one where you do and this feels a bit squishy to put the thumb in there. So now if I do D, G, B this would also be quite easy if you ask me D, G, B, E, G, C because the common notes in the center right D, G, B, D, F sharp A super easy right D, G, B, E, G, C, D, F sharp A and so on and so forth. So what's happening now is you figure out a way to connect any chord together using the idea of having a note in common. Now if there is no note in common no problem just figure out the easiest way to shift between them okay so I hope this is done and dusted on G major for all of you and just to sort of revise and capture all that I have talked about in this lesson instead of me summarizing it let's just do it on another scale shall we let's do it on the key of F major. So F major we have written it down in a neat round circle as always the major chords the minor chords and the lone diminished chord okay let's plot them out major one F major one fourth B flat that's also going to form major fifth C major the two minor G minor three minor A minor and six minor happens to be D minor lastly you have the E diminished which is the seven these are all the available chords on F major you are given any chord progression you can crack this okay coming back to one four one five what is one four one five all the happy major chords right so that's F major B flat major F major C major so again let's write down the notes of these chords in another neat round circle or at least in a circular manner F A C B flat D F F A C and lastly C E G as always we play them with the bass note or the root note in the left hand and as always we figure out by playing it this way it's an absolute nightmare for you the player and the listener right because it sounds completely disconnected so you write down all the available inversions or all the available shapes so F major we wrote it in a round so you know it's F A C and then A C F C F A okay then the B flat chord where you do B flat D F D F B flat F B flat D and then come back to F major F A C A C F C F A and finally we have the five chord which is C G E G C G C E and then you make your connections between the chords for highly efficient playing so if you start with F A C F A C F B flat D right I did not want to go here for obvious reasons so I did I move from here to here so I've done F B flat D then obviously I come back to F A C and how do I end C is in common E G C and then you do this with all the other chords all rather all the other starting points of the same chord so A C F B flat D F so you connected there come back to AC F which is the same thing and then you do G C E and then you go on and then you do C F A which is the next starting point for the F chord running out of colors but you get the idea C F A D F B flat C F A C E G I think for F major everything super easy to play C F A D F B flat C F A actually like this the best also sounds very assertive right that's pretty much it so we've looked at the one four one five chord progression on two scales and before you play the chord progression you're going to need to write down the scale of interest figure out all the available chords and now if a person tells you play one five six four or one six two five or one two three four or some weird progression whether it's diatonic or not you just have to write the chords connect them together figure out the most efficient way to move and job done so the things you need to do with chord inversions is first of all don't treat it like a brand new chapter in your life when you learn chords when you learn chord progressions for the first time also bring them all together don't think that chord inversions is a new chapter or a more advanced chapter it's actually there to make our life easier on the piano right so I hope you guys have found this lesson useful and if you did please consider subscribing to our YouTube channel and more importantly turn on that bell icon which you see somewhere for notifications whenever we release a new video you will be updated immediately and also share the video with all your fellow musician friends and give us a comment tell us how you thought this lesson was and give us some suggestions as well for something we could do in the future right cheers as always this is Jason here from the Nathaniel School of Music signing off