Guitar Tutorial: Chord Inversions

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Using chord inversions can make your chord changes sound much smoother and more professional. This concept is not new for pianists but is often overlooked among guitarists more used to playing the common pattern based chords and scale shapes, without understanding how they relate to the notes on the fretboard. Lets get started.

There are three common chord inversions and they’re called first inversion,second inversion and third inversion. Chord inversions are created when the lowest pitched note (bass note) in the chord is anything other than the root. For an example, we’ll use the C major triad. All major chords (triads) are made from the first, third and fifth degrees of the major scale. C major chord consists of the notes C-E-G.

C is the root note for the C major chord and if this is played as the bass tone then we say the chord is in root position. The second note is E. If this is used in the bass then it is the first inversion. The third inversion is when G is used in the bass.

C major chord = CEG

First Inversion = EGC or ECG

Second inversion = GCE or GEC

This same idea can continue for extended chords. For example, Cmaj7 consists of the notes C-E-G-B, then: B in the bass = third inversion and so on. The inversion is indicated only by bass tone, the other notes can be any order. In other words E-C-G and E-G-C are both considered first inversion.

Chord Voicing

Taking inversions one step further now we can use a technique known as chord voicing. The idea is to find the most appropriate inversion for each chord in a progression that results in each of the notes to change in pitch (interval distance) as little as possible. Example: Play the standard C major and A minor chords in open position, but only using the top three (thinnest) strings of the guitar. The result is C major played in second inversion (G is the lowest note) and A minor in root position. Playing them this way has created the smallest amount of pitch change possible.

It takes some practice and experience to make good use of chord voicing but the benefits are well worth the effort.