I recently became aware of keyboardist Ed Kerr and really like the way he talks about keyboards and thinks about music. I highly recommend you check his stuff out, or catch a clinic with him.

While looking over his site, I came came across an article I had planned to write about the same topic. However, he has already written it so well, I thought I’d just link over to him. This is also for my keyboardists in our Jamaica conference who are working on all the inversions of the I, IV, V and VI chords in all the keys – right guys? Still working on those? Correct fingering?

Ed talks about droning a note (holding it down) and then voicing the chords underneath that note with all those inversions we’re getting under our fingers. He gives the following example:

Let’s say you’re in the key of G, and the progression you’re playing is G C Em7 D. That’s a 1 4 6 5, by the way.

So if you put your pinky on the G, you can play the progression with the following inversions:

G – 1st inversion
C – root
Em7 – 2nd inversion (or Em – 2nd inversion)
D -2nd inversion, with a G on top, making it a D4 chord

If you put your pinky on the D, you could play the progression with the following inversions:

G – root
C – 1st inversion, with a D on top, making it a C2 chord
Em7 – root
D -root

This is something I do kind of instinctively, and then work my way up or down the keyboard to build or release tension, but it’s pretty cool to see it all written out the way Ed did.

Stop by and leave him some love ( that is, some comments) on his site!