INVERSIONS

Today I wanted to explain what chord inversions are.  You remember that a chord is typically built in thirds, in a nice-looking stacked structure, as below:

But sometimes you will see chords that are not stacked so orderly!  When you rearrange the notes of the chord, it is called an inversion.  If you take the bottom note, (or root of the chord), and just move it to the top, the chord is then seen in 1st inversion:

You can also think of first inversion as a chord that forms with the third tone of the chord as the bottom note.  From 1st inversion, you would take the bottom note again (or third of the chord), and move it to the top, putting the chord into 2nd inversion:

So the 2nd inversion chord has the fifth tone as the bottom note.  From 2nd inversion, you take the bottom note again, (or fifth of the chord), and move it to the top, with the seventh tone as the bottom note, putting the chord now into 3rd inversion:

These inversions are useful to help avoid the monotony of just the same bass notes over and over.  You will notice that the notes of the chord are the same in each of these examples, but just rearranged into a different order.  When you see a chord written that is not stacked neatly, it is most likely an inverted chord.  The progression of inversions sounds like this:

Again, the examples here are shown only on a C7 chord, for simplicity’s sake.  But the same concept would apply to any key, or any chord you choose!  Next time, we’ll dive into more depth about dominant 7th chords!  Until then, keep practicing!!

And the beat goes on…