Chord practice for piano: random chords and inversions
Chord practice means seeing a chord symbol and playing the chord quickly and correctly. Chord Drills does this in your browser with your MIDI keyboard. It shows a chord, checks every note you play and lights wrong notes up in red. It works like a random chord generator, and it also covers inversions and the chords of a key.
Why practise chords in random order?
Reading a symbol like F♯m7♭5 and playing it without thinking is a skill of its own. It is different from knowing the theory behind the chord. When the order is random, you cannot rely on a memorised pattern, so you train what you actually need: seeing the symbol and finding the notes. Short daily sessions of five to ten minutes work better than one long session a week.
How it works in Chord Drills
- 25 chord types: major, minor, diminished, augmented, sus4, sixth chords, seventh chords (maj7, m7, 7, m7♭5, dim7, m(maj7)) and extended chords up to 13ths, including altered dominants such as 7♭9 and 7♯9.
- All 12 roots: you choose which ones to include. Black-key roots appear in both spellings, for example F♯ and G♭.
- Play it your way: any octave and any order. For extended chords the third, the seventh and the extension are enough, as jazz pianists often play them.
- Instant feedback: the keyboard on screen shows what you play, correct notes light up, wrong notes turn red. The staff shows your notes as well.
- Chords of a key: another mode names a key and a scale degree, for example C major, IV, and you play the chord on that degree, as triads or seventh chords.
- Time attack: play as many chords as you can in a set time and beat your own high score.
Chord inversions
An inversion is the same chord with a different note at the bottom. The notes do not change, only their order. Inversions let you move smoothly from chord to chord without jumping around the keyboard, and they are the foundation of good voice leading. These are the inversions of Cmaj7:
- Root position: C E G B
- 1st inversion: E G B C, written Cmaj7/E
- 2nd inversion: G B C E, written Cmaj7/G
- 3rd inversion: B C E G, written Cmaj7/B
A triad has two inversions, a seventh chord has three. The note after the slash is the bass note, the lowest note you play.
Practising inversions in Chord Drills
- Drill mode: in the settings for random chords you can choose the position: any position, root position, or the 1st, 2nd and 3rd inversion, also mixed. The task shows the slash chord, for example Cmaj7/E.
- The bass rule: your lowest note has to be the bass note, so you really play the inversion. The other notes may be in any octave and order.
- Learn mode: in the learning section choose a chord, a root and an inversion. You see the name, the notes with their intervals, the keyboard and the notation for each inversion.
- Limits: extended chords (9th, 11th, 13th) have no inversions here and are played in any position.
A simple practice plan
- Major and minor triads in all 12 keys.
- Add seventh chords (maj7, m7, 7).
- Add inversions, one position at a time, for example only the 1st inversion across all roots.
- Add 9th, 11th and 13th chords.
- Link two chords by playing the second one in the inversion closest to the first.
- Use time attack to build speed, and the metronome to keep steady.
What you need
A MIDI keyboard (USB or Bluetooth) and a computer with Chrome or Edge, because the browser needs Web MIDI. Chord Drills is free, needs no sign-up and does not track you. It is a drill tool, not a course: it does not teach you chords, it makes you faster at the ones you know. Next step: chord progressions.