Back into triple time - written in slow rock ballad You should have studied the Finding Inversions modules and the earlier Broken Chords pages before tackling this module.

The module riff

Here's the module riff - up to speed, but there's a practice-speed version after that.

Teaching video and notes

Here's the chords-with-BMT (and counts) illustration.

The line of 'underlying' (i.e. not broken) triads in the music and the BMT notation above it demonstrate the way of thinking you want to develop - that makes it 'obvious what's going on' and easy to create your own broken chord riffs.

Work through the video section by section to build your performance.

  Some points

• Rehearse the 'underlying inversions' as block chords (i.e. 'unbroken') first. You do not have to be able to read music - refer to the inversion shapes diagram and the chord symbol to identify the root position, first inversion and second inversion triads.
  

• The 'underlying inversions' are played in the practice version recording  - you can hear when they come. They do not come regularly - they last varying numbers of RH quavers.
• There's a new rhythm for the bass note - it gives the riff a little rock'n'roll 'kick' by coming in quaver 5 of the six-quaver RH groups. Listening carefully will reveal where this happens; you may have to count the RH quavers to place the bass note properly.
• There are exclamation marks where something unexpected happens - first, where the right hand pattern is not the same the second time through, and then indicating the two places where you only play two notes (B and T) of the 'underlying inversion'.
• Cmj7 = RH E minor chord with C in the bass; Bm7 = RH D chord with B in the bass.
  

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