How to Put Together Chord Inversions

For jazz, rock, guitar, piano and everything that involves playing or writing music, chord inversions are a must know. They give you the ability to create a better flow to the song and to make it easier to get from one chord to the other.

The basic concept to keep in mind with chord inversions is that you are simply taking the notes from the regular stack of notes and moving them to a different place on the guitar, piano or staff.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Staff paper
• pencil
• musical instrument

1. Start with a C chord, which is stacked C, E, G (1, 3, 5). Write it out on the paper. This is known as the root chord.

2. Take the bottom of the C chord (the C) and put it at the top of the chord. This is first inversion. It should now read E, G, C.

3. If you want to go into second inversion, take the E from the bottom of the chord and place it on the top. It will now read G, C, E. Play each one of these as you go along in order to hear the difference in sound.

Tips & Warnings

• If you want to invert one chord to move more smoothly into the next chord, find the common tone between both of them. For instance, if you have C, E, G (c chord) and F, A, C (f chord), the common tone would be C. Keep this common tone in the same place while you move the other notes up or down into an inversion in order to make a smooth transition.
• If you want to add a 7th chord, (or 9th, 11th, 13th) you will follow the same inversion rules for the 1, 3, 5 chord, keeping the placements of the other notes stacked in a similar order. For example, C, E, G, B (C 7th chord) in second inversion will be G, E, C, B.