Technical Exercises and Regimes

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Chords (6)

My very favourite warm-up is to play chords in all inversions, major then minor, through all twelve keys. Do this hands together, two octaves apart. I like to play each chord using a staccato from the fingers, pulling the finger tips towards the palm of the hand without allowing the arm to join in the pull, and holding onto the last chord before the next set:

My approach is major then minor, then transpose up a semitone until you get back to the key you started in. There are two things that are most important:

1. Make sure to use the correct fingerings. Since all common chords whatever the inversion use the thumb, 2nd and 5th fingers, the remaining finger will either be 3rd or 4th. Which of these you use depends on the size and shape of your hand. I have found students tend to avoid the 4th finger in a C major LH common chord (or a RH C major first inversion chord), for example. When making your choice, ask yourself if you are using the 3rd finger because it really is the better choice, or whether you are avoiding the weaker 4th. A good chord fingering is one where the hand position looks the most natural: we don’t want a position where some fingers are bunched up and others extended.
2. Consciously release all effort during the quaver rests by closing up the hand to its default natural position between each chord. There is absolutely time to do this, even when the exercise is faster.

Variations

To cement the fingering patterns and for independence of each finger within the chord, I suggest doing a certain amount of tapping practice (this technique will be covered in a separate section). Intermediate players can do this exercise with triads in all inversions.