Chord Inversions on a Twelve String Guitar

Video Transcript

"Hi! I’m John Armstrong with expertvillage.com. I’m a professional guitar instructor and today we’ll be going over the 12 string guitar. Okay, another thing that can be really interesting and do with the 12 string guitar is what’s referred to as a chord inversion, or what are sometimes referred to as slash chords. This is where in our triad, instead of having a root on the bottom we have a third and a fifth. Or in the case of a minor triad, a root, a flat, a third, and a fifth. Instead of having the root being our lowest, deepest sounding note in the chord, we put out of the third on the bottom, which creates what is called a first inversion chord or the fifth on the bottom, which creates what’s called a second conversion chord. An example of this would be if I have a regular D chord and I take the sharp note here and put it down here in the bass. Now I have my F sharp on the bottom. My third is on bottom, I have a first inversion D chord. Or for example if I was to play a G chord and have a B note. Have the B, the third, be on the bottom of the chord. A G/B or a first inversion G chord. Another inversion example would be the D chord, but instead of strumming the open D string first, you’re strumming the A string first. A little fuller sounding chord, which would be kind of nice on a 12 string. This worked for kind of setting up almost a walking bass line type progression. For example, what I would do here is I would take a typical G, C, G, D chord progression and I’ll tie it in by using inversion chord. For example, instead of going G, D right off the bat, I’ll go G, D with an F sharp and the bass, B minor, C, G with the B in the bass, and then a D with an A in the bass. So you end up with a walking bass line type of ."