Hello, today you are going to be learning more about the chord inversion concept that I have been studying with the world- class guitarist and tutor Scott McGill. In Part 3 you learnt how to create inversions of the Gmaj7 and GDom7 chord and today it’s time to learn how to create inversions of the Gmin7 chord, Gmin7b5 chord and the GDim7 chord.
For anyone reading this who may be new to the concept of chord inversions, I will explain. Chord Inversions are a chord where the order of the notes from within the chord have been jumbled around. This means that the lowest note which we normally hear as the root of the chord will not be the root of the chord. For example with a G Minor 7 you would expect the lowest note to be G if you are new to inversions, however it could be a G, Bb, D or F because these are all notes from within the chord. To understand inversions you are best off deconstructing a chord, looking at the notes it contains and learning how to invert it up the neck. Below you can see how I have written the Gm7 chord in its standard root on E string form and then 3 inversions following after that.
If you start to try to use one of the inversions in place of a standard shape you usually rely on, you will hear a new sound enter into your playing. It then becomes down to your judgement as when to use an inversion over a normal shape because the inversions will not suit every musical situation.
G Minor 7 Chord and the Inversions on the E String
G Minor 7 Chord and the Inversions E string
An inversion may work particularly well as a second guitar line to fill out a song or improvisation when the other guitarist of keyboard player is using standard shapes. The enjoyment for you here should be in experimenting with how to use your newly found ways to play standard chords, remember to have fun with this.
G Minor 7b5 Chord and the Inversions on the E String
G Minor 7b5 Chord and the Inversions E string
G Dim 7 Chord and the Inversions on the E String
G Dim 7 Chord and the Inversions E string
The diminished 7 chord and its inversions are an interesting set to learn because you do not have to learn 3 new inversions because you simply shift the same shape up the neck 3 frets a time. This makes the use of the diminished 7 chord sometimes predictable as it is tempting to move up the neck using each inversions in a chord run style fashion. However compared to the maj7. Dom7 and min7 chords, this one is used less frequently but is worth learning.
I hope this idea has made sense to you and please contact me by leaving a comment if you have any questions. If you have enjoyed this free guitar lesson and wish to study guitar with Your Guitar Tutor then you may want to look at Be The Guitarist.
In part 5 you will learn how to create the chord inversions for the maj7, Dom7, min7,min7b5 and Dim7 chord types on the A string plus much more
Tom Clark