Guitar Lesson Blog

Hot for Chords – Inversions
Today we are going
to talk about inversions.

What are inversions and
how do they apply to chords?

An inversion describes the
relationship of the bass note
to the root note.

Wait a minute I thought
the Bass note was the root note?

Most times yes but not
with inversions.

Say you are in the the key
of C.

The Root note would be C.

The normal chord would
have a C in the Bass of
the Chord.

The Notes of the C chord
are C – E – G

In theory these are the 1 – 3 – 5
notes of the scale.

Chords also have voicings.

The major chord has 2 main
Voicings.   

1 – 3 – 5

and

1 – 5 – 3 or 1 – 5 – 1 – 3

But what if the Bass note
(the lowest note of the chord)

is not the root note?

say something like this:

E  G  C

or 3 – 5 – 1

Well this is an Inversion.

or perhaps

G – C – E

5 – 1 – 3

This is also an inversion.

Here are 3 inversions
for the same Open C chord.

In tablature the chords look
like this:


E|--0-------0--
B|--1-------1--
G|--0---0------
D|--2---2---2--
A|------3------
E|------3---3--
- - C1  C2  C3

C1 is  3 – 5 – 1 – 3
C2 is  5 – 1 – 3 – 5
C3 is  5 – 3 – 1 – 3

Well now you know the basics
of inversions.

But waht can you do
with inversions.

A great use for inversions is
if you want to play chords
in such a way that an
interesting bassline is
created.

One example would be
“While my Guitar Gently Weeps”
By George Harrison of the Beatles

the First Line:

Am     Am/G    Am6              Fmaj7
I look at you all see the love
there that’s sleeping

The Am/G is acually
A minor 7 with the 7th
in the bass. (Inversion)

the Am6 is the same with the F#
in the bass. (Inversion)

So the bass line is walking down
while the chords are playing

The bass line
goes A G F# F

So yes Inversions can
also be used for
Extended chords like
the 7th and 6th chords.

Hmm…  I don’t think
we have discussed
extended chords.

That will be a good
topic for next week!

I hope you enjoyed
this lesson!

Keep on pickin,

Andrew

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