Frank Vignola 1 Hour "Inversion Excursion" Masterclass Session1

[00:00:02]All right, this is session one for the inversion excursion master class.

[00:00:09]Uh what we're going to be doing here is uh first understand what a chord is.

[00:00:16]A chord is a three notes put together as a triad.

[00:00:23]Usually your one, [music] your three and your five step of the scale is a major inversion.

[00:00:35]So just to look at the theory of what a chord is, if we take a C scale on our B string.

[00:00:48][music] Now we look at 1 2 3 1 and 3 [music] five [music] C E G 1 35.

[00:01:03]If we play them together, you get a C chord in your root position.

[00:01:10]C is the root. Three and five. So, first we need to identify the 1 135 of the C major chord on each string. So, let's start there. We have our 1 [music] 3 5 1.

[00:01:31]Should all play that on your second string. 1 3 5 1. [music] Okay. Okay. Now, to make a chord minor, there are two chord types, major and minor. We flat the third. We've heard this a zillion times. It's one flat three [music] major [music] and minor.

[00:02:07]>> [music] [music] >> First inversion major.

[00:02:16]First [music] inversion minor.

[00:02:22][music] John Williams [music] major minor [music] 151 minor major.

[00:02:46]The difference in feeling is really pretty amazing. So, we're gonna really explore these minor and major triads to get going. Okay, so that's the second string. We did that. Now, if we go to the first string, we [music] have our E.

[00:03:02]That's the third of C, G, your five, [music] and your root. So if we play the notes of the C chord, [music] right? If we look at that basic C [music] chord, we're going to be working with that here.

[00:03:30][music] [music] That's the second string. Now your third string. G 5 1 roo<unk> 3 5.

[00:03:50][music] Play those notes and hit that open C chord.

[00:04:00]Okay. Okay. The next string you have [music] your E is the third five root 3.

[00:04:12][music] So it's very [music] important opening step and a lot of us don't do this horizontal work and it's really pretty important. [music] Okay. C there's the root on the fifth string.

[00:04:29]third, fifth, [music] root.

[00:04:38][music] And then on your low string, you have E, G, C.

[00:04:51][music] Okay. So, it's important over the next week to go through your chord tones on each string in some different keys. We did C.

[00:05:12]Now, let's go to F.

[00:05:14]Here's your F [music] chord.

[00:05:16]Root 3 again.

[00:05:21]>> [music] >> Root 3 five root [music] back to C F. [music] There's your C. That's [music] the fifth of F.

[00:05:47]Here's your root.

[00:05:53]>> [music] >> A. That's your third. 1 [music] 3.

[00:06:03]Again, play your chord tones.

[00:06:06][music] 3 5 root 3 and name them and hit your F chord that we're familiar with. There's the root. [music] It's the [music] fifth C.

[00:06:31]It's the root of C. Now it's the fifth of F.

[00:06:35]There's the root. Third, [music] fifth.

[00:06:41][music] Those two frets sound good, right? Listen to that. Wow.

[00:06:46]>> [music] >> and then your root F.

[00:06:54]Okay. The reason why this is very important and I'd like you to go through C F G to start B flat E flat as far as you can get.

[00:07:06]And why that's so important is because the way we're going to create these inversions is by taking say our C chord or our F. Let's start on the F. That's in first position. That's your root position. F triad [music] 135.

[00:07:25]Now to get our next inversion, we move to the next chord tone moving horizontally.

[00:07:31]F goes to A. And we just did this. A goes to C.

[00:07:37]C goes to F.

[00:07:40][music] That's your F triad in its first inversion. Meaning with the third in the bass, we invert the notes from 1 [music] 35. Now we have 35 1.

[00:07:53]We do that again. The A goes to C. The C goes to the root F and the F goes to A.

[00:08:00][music] It gives us like our A chord only an F. In our second inversion with the fifth, we invert it twice. Now 5 1 3 3 [music] 5 1 inversion and root position.

[00:08:19][music] [music] Okay, that's on this set of strings. Now if we move this [music] first inversion, we look at our big chord and we take the top here. We have A C F. [music] All of me.

[00:08:44]That is our F chord in its first inversion starting on the A, the third.

[00:08:53]Okay. And now if we [music] take that chord and move it up to its next inversion, the A goes to C, the C goes to F, right? The fifth goes to the root, the root goes to the third. It gives us our little F triad. Starting on the C, your second inversion.

[00:09:13]C goes to F to the root. Five goes to root. One goes to three. Three goes to five.

[00:09:22]There is our root position F chord on the upper strings. So those are our three inversions of the F. [music] First inversion, root inversion, second [music] inversion, and first inversion, [music] root position, first second back to root.

[00:09:48][music] Okay, now let's continue with that big F bar chord and go to the next set of strings.

[00:09:56]There's your three note triad in the [music] middle of that big bar chord.

[00:10:01]I'm trying to go with a familiar shape and then look at it and say, "Oh, that's the fifth, the root, and the third."

[00:10:08][music] So, what inversion would that be? Starting on the fifth, your second inversion, the [music] C goes to F. And this is why it's important we take the time, the 10 or 15 minutes a day to go over our horizontal triads because we need to [music] know what's coming up here. C to F, F to A, and A to C, giving us our [music] first inver, I mean our root position.

[00:10:41]F triad. [music] Do that again. F goes to A. A goes to C. C goes to F.

[00:10:52][music] Second inversion. First inversion.

[00:10:59]Root position.

[00:11:01]Second inversion.

[00:11:04]Okay, let's go here. [music] Top set of strings.

[00:11:09]the bottom 3 [music] 5 1.

[00:11:13]We have to stop thinking about chord grips and start thinking about each note as an individual chord tone.

[00:11:23]You probably never played that inversion before.

[00:11:27][music] A goes to C, C goes to F, F goes to A.

[00:11:35][music] Same as this. However, C goes to F. F goes to A. A goes to C.

[00:11:45]And there is [music] your root position.

[00:11:49]See, it's the same chord. Another [music] great exercise. Take your familiar, put it on each. [music] Got to tune that up.

[00:12:03]Here we go. [music] See that? Same chord, same pitches on the different string sets.

[00:12:16]Okay, now let's do that same thing in the key of C.

[00:12:22]Okay, here's your big [music] C chord.

[00:12:24]Let's start with the upper three strings, G, C, and E. We notice our D chord. [music] Move it back two frets.

[00:12:33]There's your C triad in its second inversion. Right, the G.

[00:12:43]Okay, G goes to C, C goes to E, E goes to G.

[00:12:51]your root position C triad, [music] right? Got to know our positions. We got the triads. We can make a little improvisation.

[00:13:15][music] your first inversion. C goes to E. E goes to G. G goes to C. And if we notice the big bar chord, [music] it's the top of the bar chord. The same way we started on F. We're going to start making these connections the more you practice it. [music] Practicing really is the key to learning this stuff. E goes to G, Ges, C goes to E.

[00:13:44]And there is your second inversion C triad.

[00:13:49]>> [music] [music] >> Okay, that's the way we want to start practicing it.

[00:14:02][music] Root position, first inversion, [music] second inversion.

[00:14:12][music] Could go up the scale and hit the chord.

[00:14:23]>> [music] >> to get an idea of [music] the chord tones within the scale. Okay. Next, C [music] E G C your first inversion. [music] Second inversion, E [music] goes to G, G goes to C, C goes to E.

[00:14:54]Okay, you got to know where the root is within all these chords. [music] Position [music] [music] >> [music] >> root position, second inversion, first inversion.

[00:15:25]Okay, again we go to our familiar first chord we learned C root 3r fifth [music] third [music] in the bass fifth in the bass [music] again big bar chord [music] third in the bass your first inversion Okay. And then our lowest low set of strings G C E.

[00:16:18]All right. So that's the way to practice the inversions.

[00:16:24]That's the major for the C and F.

[00:16:28]Might as well go through the G. It's really what we should try to get through this week is C, F, and G in your major inversions.

[00:16:40]G [music] B D. Again, if we play the horizontal scale [music] recognizing 1 3 5 1 5 3 1 3 5 [music] 1 5 3 [music] D string, that's the Five root. Three. Five root. [music] Five. Three. Root.

[00:17:22]Root. Three. Five. [music] Root.

[00:17:28]Five. Three.

[00:17:30][music] Three.

[00:17:33]Five.

[00:17:34]Root. [music] Three. Five.

[00:17:38]Root.

[00:17:40]5 [music] 3 root 3 five root five 3 Okay, important important stuff to work on here. This I mean why is it helpful?

[00:17:59]Because it's nice to just get away [clears throat] from playing the same old chord grip we always play. The more we get into songs, the more we realize that sometimes a different inversion sounds a lot better because of the melody note, voice leading, all of that comes into play. Um, all right. So, let's go over the G ones. Then we'll go to the minor.

[00:18:24]Then we'll start to kind of show you what we're going to be going over next week, which is going to be starting to put together little progressions. Okay. So, let's just start with the G inversions. [music] Here we have your first inversion.

[00:18:41][music] Second inversion root.

[00:18:51]That's your second inversion.

[00:18:55]Root [music] first.

[00:19:00]And you [music] know how I'm coming to this. I don't want to have to say A, B goes C, G goes to B. We [music] know we need to identify root, third, fifth.

[00:19:09]Root goes to third, three goes to five, five goes to fruit. And in that succession, that's inverting the three notes.

[00:19:18][music] There's your first big G chord, [music] first inversion. 3 five root five roo<unk>3 [music] first inversion and second inversion and root.

[00:19:48][music] All right. [clears throat] Now, just want to go over one thing here.

[00:19:59]C, F, and G. In the key of C, those are important chords. The one chord, the four chord, and [music] the five chord.

[00:20:11]Right? Most songs you're going to have your C, you're going to have your one, your four, and your five in most songs, mostly every song we play. Okay? So, what I'd like you to do while you're doing this work and when you get a little more familiar with the inversions is now put them together as if it was a song form. 145.

[00:20:34]All right, this is what we're going to be doing next week, but I want to give you a heads up if you're moving along pretty quickly or you are sort of familiar with these inversions already.

[00:20:44]Now we take our C F G back to C.

[00:20:58]Your next C F G C F G C [music] F G F G [music] could do that too. You don't have to stay there. You can up to the next C.

[00:21:39][music] Okay, that's really applying your inversions.

[00:21:51]They all have a different sound, a different feeling, and we're able to go all the way up the neck playing 145 is what we're going to be doing when we play standards. Anyway, all right. So, I just wanted to give you a little cue into that.

[00:22:11]Um, before we get on to the minor, let's just go over one more thing, okay? which is going to be be octave displacement.

[00:22:20]Starting to take closed inversions.

[00:22:26]That's a closed inversion.

[00:22:29]Close. [music] Now if we put the third and use octave displacement and put that an octave up, [music] we get that a spread voicing which is most of us know that major 7th or this C. [music] It's just using the triad of it.

[00:22:53][music] Okay, this is something you need to work on because we're not just going to be playing close voiced chords.

[00:23:00][music] Okay. Now if we look very simple same concept root goes to third. And this is why it's important we start studying our horizontal scales and chord tones.

[00:23:15]One goes [music] to three. Ges to C. E goes to G. Just visualize it first and make the move. Your first inversion C chord.

[00:23:26]>> [music] >> It's like that except we're taking the G now and we're placing it here. You [music] can play it like that or like that.

[00:23:40][music] Little cool thing. If you bar that, put the second in, [music] it's a very nice sounding substitution.

[00:23:51]A C triad [music] with the second.

[00:23:56]Okay, we do that one more time. E goes to G, C goes to E, and C uh G goes to C.

[00:24:07]Either [music] that or [music] Okay. So again, this is going to be the work involved is to start going through your spread inversions.

[00:24:29]Okay? On this set of strings, look for [music] the root and look for your bar chord and the 135.

[00:24:36]1 53 instead of one, [music] put the octave displace one octave up.

[00:24:50]First inversion. [music] How many times [music] have we heard this? You're a great introduction. Turn around.

[00:25:02]Third in the bass. First inversion.

[00:25:04][music] Have this up here now. So these nice chords stem from these great inversions.

[00:25:11][music] and the C G in the bass. [music] Again, instead of G, C, E, we're taking this string and putting it an octave higher.

[00:25:25]This could [music] be like this or like this. Because we always have to remember we have the same note five or six frets away.

[00:25:35]Gives [music] us options.

[00:25:39]Okay, here we go. On this set of strings, instead of open G, we're taking the middle [music] note and we're putting it up an octave.

[00:25:56][music] Again, we're used to this grip. We have to know one, five, three.

[00:26:04]Okay, we have to start looking at our familiar chord grips as separate notes of the chord. We need to start training our brain to look at it that way.

[00:26:18][music] Okay. So, um sort of the homework.

[00:26:29]Um let's go on to minors.

[00:26:32]All right. They use the relative minor here, which I think is a good idea. So in the key of C, the relative minor is A minor.

[00:26:44]Okay. So we could look at it that way or we could simply look at taking what we've learned already and making these chords minor.

[00:26:54]Okay. I'm going to opt to do that.

[00:26:58][music] So instead of a minor, which it says in our little outline, we're going to make that C minor. And we're [music] simply going to flat the third. We're going to identify the third, then flat it.

[00:27:10][music] So there's C minor, first inversion.

[00:27:14]Closed voicing.

[00:27:18]There's your first inversion. Again, if we look at the big bar chord, it's the top of the chord.

[00:27:25]and then fifth in the bass. Your second inversion minor.

[00:27:31][music] Identify the third and flatted and then play your [music] inversions.

[00:27:44]Major [music] minor.

[00:27:52][music] Okay. Then we go we get our familiar chord and start going through our [music] we did that one. So identify the third and we flat it.

[00:28:06]C minor.

[00:28:08]Three goes to five. Five goes to root.

[00:28:10]Root goes to flat three. Now there's your second inversion [music] C minor triad. Again, try to see it as a segment or part of the familiar big chord grips we already play.

[00:28:28]Ges, C goes to E flat, E flat goes to G.

[00:28:32][music] Here's your C minor. Get the major. Identify the third and flat it.

[00:28:42][music] Flat three. That's your first inversion.

[00:28:49]Major, minor, major, minor, major, [music] minor.

[00:29:00]Okay, next set of strings.

[00:29:03]Here's your major. Identify the third and you flat it.

[00:29:09]Move it up horizontally.

[00:29:13]First inversion.

[00:29:16]second inversion, which is these [music] three strings.

[00:29:21]Actually, this big inversion, you have this, you have this, and you have this if you just separate it.

[00:29:29]And then [music] [music] great stuff here. Major minor. Okay, now let's do the octave displacement while we're here. Take the middle note and put it [music] up an octave.

[00:29:51]This G we [music] can put here.

[00:29:54]There's your C minor 7. C minor. Take out the third string. [music] Same thing. [music] Take the G, put it up an octave.

[00:30:10][music] Same here. Take the C, put it up an octave.

[00:30:14]Put the E flat here to make it a little easier [music] fingering. Always remembering we have the same note.

[00:30:26]I love these inversions [music] if I could remember.

[00:30:34][music] very Bach like Bach and then uh upper register. Let's look at these fifth, third root. We had [music] that.

[00:30:54]We take the middle string and put it up an octave.

[00:31:00][music] Great picking exercise. [music] Down, up, down.

[00:31:15]Another great [music] way to practice the inversions.

[00:31:19]All right. And then we go to F minor.

[00:31:21]Same thing. [music] First inversion.

[00:31:28]Second inversion. again. 1 [music] 3 5 1 major 3 five [music] one flat 3 and go along those strings and get the chord tones.

[00:31:51][music] F minor >> [music] >> Nice set of strings. You have your first inversion with the third flat third in the bass. Make it major. [music] Just always identify the third as we're practicing this.

[00:32:14]Major. There's [music] the third. You flat it. Remember John Williams.

[00:32:24]Third. Flat it. Another [music] great exercise. [music] [music] [music] Next set of strings.

[00:32:56]right there. Major identify [music] the third flat. There's F minor triad.

[00:33:01]Second inversion fifth in the bass.

[00:33:05][music] [music] Even do that immediately.

[00:33:15]Make the change to the octave [music] displacement.

[00:33:19]Major minor first inversion [music] spread closed octave displacement [music] [music] and your low major minor.

[00:33:50]>> [music] >> C F A flat major minor major minor octave displacement major [music] minor.

[00:34:09]I like great rhythm chord.

[00:34:16][music] Fifth in the bass. Third in the bass.

[00:34:23]Major minor. [music] There's [music] the root, fifth, third.

[00:34:41]It's also another [music] great triad in the minor. As you get further up the neck, it's easier to get this because the frets get smaller.

[00:34:50]That's a great inversion. Again, a good one for rhythm.

[00:34:56][music] Those notes in there. Move root inversion fifth.

[00:35:04]Okay, we'll get into more of how to move these chords and make more of them as the weeks go on, but it's so important to get just a foundation. Even if we've done it before, go through all the keys.

[00:35:17]If you're starting off on this, C, F, and G, C minor, F minor, G minor, okay? All over the neck as much as we could possibly do. Now, again, C minor.

[00:35:33]Let's go over some progressions here.

[00:35:35][music] C minor to the four F minor and then to G major. We're going to start mixing them up.

[00:35:45][music] 1 4 5 1 minor.

[00:35:53]Closest inversion. You have your root inversion goes to the fifth in the bass.

[00:35:58]Your second inversion F minor. [music] to the first inversion G back to the root. So, it's [music] funny how the three different inversions work in a position together.

[00:36:18]Same we did [music] with the major.

[00:36:26]Now, we're doing the first two minor can mix and match F C [music] to four minor major [music] major [music] minor F minor [music] G7 Seven.

[00:37:00][music] Next.

[00:37:10]Okay. 1 four five. Whether it's major, minor on the four and the one, your choice, your creative choice. The five chord would stay major because the five chord is a major chord when we're thinking about a chord progression with a one chord which is C [music] 4 1 back to one. [music] Right? There's your [music] minor major on the four. one minor, [music and singing] four major, five major. Right? So, mix them up. Mix and match them. All your inversions all over the place. This is the way we're going to learn the fingerboard. And why?

[00:38:00]If we're playing a solo, [music] [music] right?

[00:38:18]It's major [music] four, five.

[00:38:28][music] These are the [music] notes we want to land on when we're improvising. We have to know where they are, obviously. And this is the way to do it.

[00:38:43]Study, practice.

[00:38:46]Really comes down to practice. I love to practice. So, um I wake up and think, "Oh, what am I going to play today?"

[00:38:53]That's my thought when I wake up. And I woke up today, I'm like, "Oh, inversions, right? 145. Great.

[00:38:59]Refamiliarize myself. Practiced up myself on these things." So, um simple chord changes without large hand jumps.

[00:39:12]Good. So, we should practice up on this a little bit. Let me get a little track going here with some 145 practice on this. See if I have pause this one second. Give me resume.

[00:39:37]Okay. So, I have a little track up here.

[00:39:40]We're going to do C. We're going to go through C inversions with a track with a rhythm track. Then we'll go on to some others. Then we'll make that 145 progression just to get a little taste of next week.

[00:40:04]Give me one more. Oh, I forgot.

[00:40:23]All right, that should do it.

[00:40:31]C.

[00:40:36]Next inversion. [music] Next.

[00:40:43][music] [music] Next set of strings. First inversion.

[00:41:03][music] One measure each.

[00:41:13][music] Nice little ring.

[00:41:21][music] Next one. Broom.

[00:41:30][music] [music] Okay, now let's go to F. Just got to change the key.

[00:41:56]All right. Key of F majors first inversion.

[00:42:10][music] >> [music] >> taking the scale. Here we go. First, [music] first inversion, second inversion, F and root, [music] root, inversion, second inversion.

[00:42:48]>> [music] >> Next string set.

[00:42:58][music] spread inversions.

[00:43:10][music] [music] Now, let's go to G and then we'll go through some minors and then we'll put together progression.

[00:43:39]Here are G inversions.

[00:43:48]Starting with first inversion [music] the scale.

[00:44:04][music] Next set of strings [music] open.

[00:44:25]>> [music] [music] [music] >> spread inversion.

[00:45:01][music] >> [music] >> Hello octave.

[00:45:20]These [music] are very important chords.

[00:45:22]These spread inversions. This is going to be [music] your basis for your rhythm, your comping.

[00:45:30]First inversion, [music] second inversion. Recognize the root.

[00:45:35]Where is the [music] root here?

[00:45:40]there and here. [music] Good. Now, let's put this into a progression. I just blow my nose very quickly. Excuse me.

[00:46:02]Okay.

[00:46:04]So, now we're going to go C minor.

[00:46:22]Here we go.

[00:46:25]First inversion on the high string. C minor.

[00:46:29]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Next string set.

[00:46:52]First inversion. [music] Second inversion.

[00:46:57]Root.

[00:47:07]>> [music] >> next [music] string set.

[00:47:26]>> [music] >> spread. [music] That's this with the E flat up here.

[00:47:41][music] First inversion.

[00:47:50]Second [music] >> [music] >> and through low octave.

[00:48:17]This is the spreads [music] here.

[00:48:24]root position [music] and first inversion.

[00:48:32]Good.

[00:48:34]Now let's go to F minor.

[00:48:44]Okay, there we go. F minor. And here we go. Go around. We'll start with our first inversion.

[00:48:53]High strings F minor. [music] [music] [music] Some chord soloing techniques.

[00:49:22]Use a different inversion neighbors.

[00:49:30][music] Next string set.

[00:49:40][music] [music] Next string set.

[00:50:01][music] >> [music] >> spread.

[00:50:16][music] Okay, good.

[00:50:27]Let's do G minor. Then we'll put progressions together.

[00:50:32]This is such great study. The more we can do of this and the more we can get out of the way learning where everything is on the fingerboard, the easier it's going to be to play songs, progress, all that kind of stuff. Here's G minor. And then we'll move on.

[00:50:53]One, two, three, four.

[00:50:57][music] Room position.

[00:51:07][music] Go up the scale.

[00:51:16][music] Same next string set.

[00:51:23][music] >> [music] >> Okay, next string [music] set.

[00:51:52]>> [music] [music] [music] >> spread.

[00:52:20]Good. Now, let me make a little progression here. Second.

[00:52:38]Okay. So, we're going to we'll do 145 C to F to G back to C.

[00:53:05]Okay.

[00:53:09]Same tempo there.

[00:53:12]It was about 85. Here we go.

[00:53:16]Okay. C F G C 4.

[00:53:27]The nearest [music] one.

[00:53:32]F [music] G next inversion G. [music] It's a nice position.

[00:53:53][music] [music] inversion.

[00:54:09][music] [music] Okay, next string [music] set.

[00:54:34]Next inversion.

[00:54:37][music] [music] Next inversion.

[00:54:54][music] Next string set.

[00:54:59]Whoops. Hey, come on. Give me another chorus, boys.

[00:55:04]All right, here we go. Two, three.

[00:55:11][music] That's [music] the inversion.

[00:55:29]Next inversion [music] spread [music] [music] a little tougher but [singing] sounds good. voice leading.

[00:55:54][music] [music] Think you get [clears throat] the idea?

[00:56:15]You want to start moving these all around.

[00:56:19]C F G then go around to different keys. F B flat C that's 145 of F 1 145 of G G C D. This is the way we're going to learn these inversions. Not by just learning the inversions, but by putting them into progressions.

[00:56:39]Okay, let's go minor here. Let's try C minor.

[00:56:50]C minor to F minor to G back to C minor.

[00:56:58]Let's try that one.

[00:57:06]Okay.

[00:57:09]C minor.

[00:57:13][music] F minor.

[00:57:17]G major.

[00:57:21]Back to the [music] one.

[00:57:24]One 4 [music] 5.

[00:57:31][music] You're next.

[00:57:47][music] Next string set.

[00:58:03]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> See how you can make little melodies.

[00:58:37]>> [music] >> Next string.

[00:58:43][music] >> [music] [music] >> spreads.

[00:59:10][music] >> [music] [music] >> So think you get the idea. You know what the practice is this week? A little bit every day. Again, I'm a big believer in five, 10 minutes a day on the same thing leads you quicker to learning it than an hour one day and nothing the next day.

[00:59:54]So, just, you know, a little practice routine, little bit every day, go through these all over just like we were doing. And we'll pick it up again next week with some more keys, some more progressions, some voice leading basics, which we kind of introduced today. But the main thing, the notes of the chords on each string, recognizing them, playing the scale if possible, and recognizing the 135, and then your inversions based on that.

[01:00:27]So really, we're getting to know the fingerboard a lot this week through this practice. All right, if anyone has any questions, please let me know. This will be up on the master class website in the next few hours uh for you to view. I think that's the way we're going to move forward with this is not these constant emails and downloading links but house it right on that website with links underneath for downloads of the PDFs. You got to love technology. All right. Thank you folks.