Last time I told you three times to pick your own inversions. I didn't tell you how.

Here's how: pick the closest one.

That one was about which notes a chord needs (it's on the blog if you missed it). This one is about where to put them.

When the chord changes, play the next chord in the inversion that lies closest to the one you just played. Any note the two chords share stays exactly where it is. The other notes move by the smallest step they can.

Two good things happen at once. Your hand stops hopping around the keyboard. And it often sounds better too: what's easiest for your hand turns out to sound the smoothest.

Same four chords, right hand around middle c:

C (c, e, g)
G (g, b, d)
Am (a, c, e)
F (f, a, c)

Left hand: the root of each chord, one or two octaves below your right hand, just like before. One chord per bar, slow.

1. Hear the hop first

Play all four in root position in your right hand, every root in the octave above middle c: c-e-g, g-b-d, a-c-e, f-a-c. Your whole hand moves at every change. Nothing wrong with that; it's just a lot of moving. Keep that sound in your ear.

2. Keep what stays

Start on C as c, e, g from middle c, with fingers 1, 3 and 5 (thumb, middle finger, little finger). C and G share one note: the g. So your little finger stays right where it is, and so does the rest of your hand. Only the thumb moves, one key down, to b. Your index finger was already resting over the d; now it plays it. That's G as b, d, g (fingers 1, 2, 5), its first inversion.

One note stayed. The other two moved a step each.

3. Nothing to keep? Move as little as you can

G and Am have no note in common, so all three notes change. But only two fingers travel; the third is already waiting over its key. Two ways to go, the high route and the low route:

The high route, c, e, a (fingers 1, 3, 5): the thumb goes from b up to c, the little finger from g up to a. The middle finger was already over the e. Every note takes one step up.

The low route, a, c, e (fingers 1, 2, 3): the thumb goes from b down to a, the index finger from d down to c, and the middle finger takes the e. An unusual fingering, but your hand stays where it is. The top note drops from g down to e.

The high route is the closest. The low route is a close second, worth knowing for its top line (step 6). The choice is yours.

4. Two notes stay

High route, from c, e, a: keep the c and the a; the middle finger slides up from e to f. F as c, f, a.

Low route, from a, c, e: keep the a and the c, and move only the e, one key up to f. F as a, c, f (fingers 1, 2, 4; your ring finger was already over the f).

5. Back to C, and around again

High route, from c, f, a: the c stays, the f steps down to e, the a steps down to g. C as c, e, g, right where you started, fingers and all.

Low route, from a, c, f: the c stays, the a steps down to g, the f steps down to e. C as g, c, e. Keep going from there and the closest G is g, b, d: root position this time. Which inversion is closest depends on where you're coming from.

Now go around again on either route, and at every change ask two questions. What can stay where it is? And what's the smallest step for the rest?

6. Let the top note make the call

The top note, the highest note of your right-hand chord, is the one you hear most. From chord to chord, the top notes make a little line of their own, riding on top of your part. The two routes give you two lines:

High route: g, g, a, a, g, every time around.
Low route: g, g, e, f, e the first time, then e, d, e, f, e.

Play both and keep the line you like best.

Playing along with a record? Work from the top down: listen for the note that rings out on top of each chord on the record, play that as your top note, and fill out the chord below it. If that isn't the closest inversion, go with your ears; finding the closest one was still a very good exercise.

One more thing: one minute before you play

Before you play a song, play all three inversions of each of its chords (root position included), slowly, one after the other, for one minute. Then, when the chord changes, the closest one is easier to find.

No rule, just a good default

The closest inversion isn't a law. It's the default worth having in your hands, and your ears get the final word: the only real rule is that it sounds as good as possible.