Unit 5: 7th Inversions

What Are Inversions?

An inversion is a chord with any other note of the chord but the root in the bass. 

7th Inversions create more variety when playing a single chord:

This comes in very handy when playing any song that sits on one chord for a while, like a Blues where you have one chord for 4 bars. Think about what piano players play. They don't just play the same static thing for 4 bars - they change up the voicing and move things around. Very few guitar players do that.

​You can put yourself in a rare category of guitar playing by knowing 7th Inversions!

Create texture when 2 guitars are playing together:

Each guitar can play a different voicing of the same chord rather than both guitarists playing exactly the same thing all the time.

​There are a wide variety of sounds and textures that can be achieved this way - ​but you have to know your inversions in order to know the possibilities!

Create smooth voice-leading from one chord to another:

If you play a Dmi7 to a G7 the way most guitarists do it, both chords are played in root position. Sound-wise, this can be somewhat jarring because every note jumps a 4th down. This is called parallel voice-leading.

However, Dmi7 and G7 have 2 notes in common: F and D. If we voice the G7 chord in 2nd inversion, the D and F notes stay the same. So from one chord to another 2 notes stay the same – thus common tone voice-leading. Of the notes that change, one moves a whole-step and other other moves a half-step, i.e. “smooth voice leading.” There is very little movement and yet the chord has completely changed. It's a much smoother, less jarring sound.

There's also less physical movement on the fretboard; both chords are on the same set of strings, as opposed to jumping from one string group to another, as what happens with parallel voice-leading. And less movement means less potential for error.

The guitar lends itself to parallel voice-leading. It's inherent in the nature of the instrument. When you move power chords and bar chords around (the typical way most guitarists play), as in the parallel voice-leading example above, most of the time you are in parallel mode.

 Knowing 7th inversions will take your playing to a whole new level of musicality and open up sounds that set you apart!