The Mojo of Guitar Chord Inversions

When it comes to soloing you’ve got it covered but now it’s time for you to hang with the band on a two-chord vamp. Oh, chit in about 30 seconds you've boarded everyone to tear with your back on forth Lack of Mojo comping...What's guitarist supposed to do?

Learn those Guitar Chord Inversion. Because the secret mojo of all the great compers, like all the masters of the Blues, Souls, and the R&B realm, is that the knowledge can be transferred across the board, not just the fretboard. Whether you’re a rocker or a jazzer this mojo can make you a star.

Guitar chord inversions will smooth out the transition from chord to chord, harmonize melodies, and allow smooth bass motion.

On the guitar, the use of inversions allows the player to be able to play some form of a given chord virtually anywhere on the neck.

Inversions are the secret mojo in your trick bag!

   The 1st inversion guitar chord, we see the 3rd is built on the root whereas, in the 2nd inversion guitar chord, the 5th is built on the root. Even though there is a different ordering of notes above the root, it's the bass note we're interested in when determining an inversion.

    Because the root note acts as the bass in both these forms, they will sound quite similar, although it's good to know both forms.
It's when you start moving the root out of the bass position that the chord starts to sound altered.

The same applies to minor chords as well. 

Just like with major triads, when the root note is the bass note of the chord, we have two root positions...

7th  Chord Inversions 

Now that you have a good grasp on the basic triads inversion let's move on to adding extensions.

By adding the major 7th or flatted 7th to a triad we make a Major or Dom 7th chord.  A triad is a three-note chord consisting of the 1st, 3rd and 5th step of the applicable scale.

  In this case, C, E, and G spell the C major triad. Adding an extension to the triad creates a 4 note chord. In this case, by adding the 7th step of the scale to the C major triad. The 7th step of the C scale is Bb or the flatted 7th. So the spelling of a C dominant 7th chord is - C-E-G-Bb or 1-3-5-b7.

Let's start inverting.

In this case, when playing the Bb in the bass is considered the 3rd inversion. Root position has root in the bass, 1st inversion has the 3rd in the bass, 2nd inversion has the 5th in the bass and the 3rd inversion has the extension or in this case the 7th in the bass.

Conclusion

If you liked this lesson, the biggest thanks, I can get is for you to like my facebook page and leave a post with what you liked about it.  As always, feel free to contact me with your questions, concerns, etc.  I am here to help!