Chord voicings - Debut Grade

Chord Voicings for the Debut

So our chord voicings for the debut are basically C major and C minor.

Different Ways to Play

You've been given three different ways of playing these chords:

1. Right Hand
2. Left Hand
3. Both Hands

Now, these are all the same chord; they're just inverted in different ways.

Understanding Inversions

An inversion is when we start a chord, say like the first one of C major.

• The left hand chord which follows is basically the same thing, but with the G down an octave.
• And for the final one, we take the C down an octave.

This is similar with C minor, where we:

• Start off with the C up the octave.
• Then we play in the left hand in root position.
• Finally, we do a mixture of the two.

Importance of Voicings

These are quite simple voicings, but they are the foundation of all the harmony which you will come to learn.

When you start doing later grades or playing more advanced pieces, you'll find all sorts of more weird and strange harmony being thrown in. However, the fundamental building blocks of this are all to do with major or minor tonalities.

Key Takeaways

When you're learning voicings, it is very important to grasp:

• The different sound between the major and the minor.
  • Some like to say happy vs. sad or light vs. dark.

There are many different ways you can express these emotions through the music.

The most important thing to remember is that they are very, very different sounds. They strongly affect the way that people will play different types of music.

Final Note

So, voicings are very important to remember in terms of tonality, while scales are crucial in terms of fingering.

Good luck!