Stop Playing Boring Chords: The Secret of Inversions

[00:00:11]That sounds okay. It's the same cowboy chord sound that we all started with when we first picked the guitar up.

[00:00:18]But if you want to finger pick or dip your toes into finger style guitar, okay just doesn't cut it. Listen to what happens when we invert the chords.

[00:00:35]That sounds much more professional. It flows better and you already know the chords. We just need to learn how to restack them. I'm Skeet. Let's dive straight in.

[00:01:06]So what is a first inversion of a chord?

[00:01:10]Well, it's where we take the third note of the scale and play that as our low note. Okay? So in the case of a G G A B. Now don't worry guys, this isn't a theory lesson. This is just some basic theory, okay? Um we only go as high as G in music then it resets, goes back to A. So A B C D E F G, okay? So in the instance of a G chord, we have the G A B. So the first inversion of a G chord would be to have the lowest note as the B instead of the root note, the G.

[00:01:46]In the instance of the D chord that I played earlier, D E F. Well, in the key of D it's an F sharp, but if you know a D chord you're already playing the second fret anyway, all right? So and it's to put that F sharp as the low note the lowest note of the chord, okay? What this does, it stops chords feeling blocky and it makes it makes playing guitar more linear.

[00:02:09]It's where we get a lot of our walking bass notes from and we'll we'll dip our toes into some stuff in this lesson.

[00:02:15]Some stuff that I'm sure you'll be familiar with perhaps didn't realize you were playing an inversion, but your ear will at least be familiar with it. We hear it all the time in music, okay? So let's have a look at the D major chord the first one we're going to invert. All right, so as I said earlier D E F. So we're looking for that third note.

[00:02:33]Well, in a D major chord the third note is this F or as it happens the F sharp the second fret here, okay? The easiest way of explaining this is we have two E strings on the guitar as you know. So instead of playing the second fret of the E string here high, we're just going to play it low. Now one thing we would not do is cross the fingers over as I have here.

[00:02:55]So you can either start the index and the middle fingers that way or perhaps even more favored and you've probably seen this regular D chord and the thumb just over the low E string at the second fret, okay? And the effect of that is I have this very thin toppy sounding D chord or this lovely rich bass note here.

[00:03:18]Okay?

[00:03:19]Now as a finger picker and a finger style guitarist your holy grail is to look for the lowest note you can get.

[00:03:27]That's how you build your melody and ensure the guitar still sounds rich and full, okay? So inversions are very important for finger pickers and you hear them all the time in the likes of, you know, Simon & Garfunkel.

[00:03:45]Well, there's an inversion. There's an inversion of a G chord, okay? We'll get onto that in a minute. But so, you know, your James Taylors, Paul Simons, all those types of artists all using versions. So, let's try just a simple let's put this into practice, okay?

[00:04:00]Uh a very simple cowboy chord song would be um you know, G, D, E minor, and C. I'm sure we've all got songs using those chords in our repertoire. So, here's the first pass through with the normal D major, and then we'll do another pass through with the D first inversion, okay?

[00:04:24]Sounds all right. Like I said, it doesn't sound bad. But, let's use that D inversion as the second chord here, and just pay attention to how rich and fat the guitar sounds.

[00:04:46]Now, when I mentioned earlier um about familiarity, things we hear, you know, that walk down from a G to an E minor, I'm sure we've all come across.

[00:04:56]Okay.

[00:04:57]So, this is when I said earlier, you know, it gives us something linear rather than boxy, all right? It enables us to walk between chords. So, the second chord we should look at is a G first inversion, or a G {slash} B as it's very commonly known, you know. Now again, it may well be a chord that you play.

[00:05:16]Um one of the songs that I teach a lot and use as a vehicle and an example song in all of my lessons when we're learning techniques is Landslide by Fleetwood Mac. In fact, I have an a current uh lesson how to play the song. I'll throw a link up here somewhere.

[00:05:31]Um but all of that song has inversions in it, okay? So, the chords are C, G, but it's a G inversion, A minor 7, it goes to a D, into a G, all right?

[00:05:48]But, it doesn't sound right, does it?

[00:05:50]Doesn't sound right using those open cowboy chords. What we need to do is throw the inversions in there. So, the first inversion we're going to use now would be the G inversion. So, G A B. What that means is to play our G chord from second fret of the A string rather than third fret of the low E string.

[00:06:18]As opposed to Just doesn't sound right, does it? We haven't got the staircase there.

[00:06:30]Okay? And from there it does the D inversion to go into the chorus.

[00:06:57]They're littered with inversion, but doesn't it sound better? Okay? So, the other thing we don't There are more inversions we can do. So, it isn't just the third note of the scale. We can also use the fifth note of the scale. So, that's, you know, we could have a look at a C chord, a C major.

[00:07:12]Now again, a lot of you probably already play this chord and don't realize it's an inversion. But, what's the fifth of a C? So, we've got A B C D E F G. So, what does that mean? It just means to throw a G as our lowest note. Well, in a C it's here, isn't it? The third fret.

[00:07:29]So, this double You must have seen people play this, you know, where they put the little finger on uh to play the C chord and then put this over the top. Can do the same in F as well, yeah?

[00:07:40]So, here it is without the inversion.

[00:07:44]Good chord anyway, but throwing the inversion on Oh, it's just so much nicer, isn't it?

[00:07:50]Rich, full-bodied, and as I said earlier, particularly when you're finger picking, you're looking for richness and full body. Yeah, so that's it, guys. A a quick dip of our toes into chord inversions. Like I said, if you want to get into finger picking, you really need to know these chords, and these are very, very popular ones. So maybe your job this week would be to go and play a song that you already have in your repertoire, but substitute one of those chords. If you found this useful, please consider subscribing to my channel, leave me a like and drop me a comment.

[00:08:19]Let me know what song you're going to try this on, or what song you actually tried it on. How did it feel? Did it make it feel more linear? Did you get these walking bass notes?

[00:08:28]Um thanks for watching. If you'd like some behind-the-scenes support, I offer a small subscription here on YouTube, the Steady Practice Club. Uh it's full of like-minded people who get that we're in this for the long game, not quick fixes. All right? And you get early access to all of my lessons. Uh there's free tabs. I'm always on hand to answer some of your questions. So yeah, go and check that out. Um like I say, if you enjoyed it, please consider subscribing and leave me a comment. Um thank you for watching. Until the next one, I'm Skeet.

[00:08:57]Do your practice, because practice is how we get better.

[00:09:01]See you in the next one.