Chord Inversions on Guitar
Same notes, a different one on the bottom — and a different shape under your hand.
A chord is a set of notes, and a set has no order — C major is C, E and G whichever way round you play them. But on an instrument one of them is lowest, and which one changes how the chord sounds and where it sits under your hand. Root on the bottom is root position; the third on the bottom is the first inversion; the fifth on the bottom is the second. A seventh chord has a third inversion too, with the seventh lowest.
That is the whole idea, and it is worth more on the guitar than anywhere else, because on the guitar an inversion is a shape. Here is C major, root position, on the top three strings. The figure follows the text.
Which note is lowest
Root position has C at the bottom, at the third fret. Move each note up to the next chord tone and you get the first inversion — E on the bottom, at the eighth fret. Once more and it is the second inversion, G on the bottom, at the twelfth. Same three strings, same three notes, three shapes; and then it repeats. Change the root in the figure and the three shapes slide together.
The three-string sets
Every group of three adjacent strings has its own three inversions, and they don't line up: what is root position on the top three strings at the third fret is something else on the next set down. ‹ › walks all of them. Learn one string set thoroughly — the top three, usually — before adding the next; three shapes you can find without looking are worth more than twelve you have to think about.
Why: the bass moves, the chord stays
The reason to know inversions is not to have more shapes. It is that a chord change is smaller when you choose the right one. From C to F on the same strings, the C on the G string doesn't move at all and the other two move a step or two: that is a voice leading change, and it is what makes a progression sound like a line instead of a series of jumps. Every inversion is a way of getting to the next chord by the shortest route.
Minor, and the sevenths
Lower the third and the same three shapes are minor. A seventh chord has four notes, so four inversions and four strings; third inversion, with the seventh on the bottom, is the one that sounds least like the chord and leads most strongly to the next one. The shell voicings are seventh chords with the fifth removed, which is where most guitarists actually meet them.
Hearing them
An inversion sounds like its chord with a different note underlined — the bass note is what the ear catches first. The app's Build Shapes game deals a chord, shows the root, and asks for the shape; with the inversions family on, the shape it wants may have the root anywhere but the bottom, and you learn to hear the difference before you find it. That is the skill: not knowing the three grips, but knowing which one is sounding.
Questions
- What is a chord inversion?
- The same chord with a different note on the bottom. Root position has the root lowest; the first inversion has the third lowest; the second has the fifth. A seventh chord has a third inversion, with the seventh lowest.
- Why use inversions on guitar?
- So the next chord is close. Choosing the inversion whose notes are nearest the chord you are leaving makes the change smaller and smoother — the bass moves, the rest barely does.
- How many inversions does a triad have?
- Three positions: root position, first inversion and second inversion. On one set of three strings they walk up the neck in that order and repeat every twelve frets.
- What is the difference between an inversion and a voicing?
- An inversion says which chord tone is lowest; a voicing says how all the notes are spread. Two voicings can be the same inversion with the upper notes arranged differently.