dissecting music

Finding Seventh Chord Inversions

This is a method for an effective integration of seventh chord inversions into your guitar playing. Seventh chords are a good compromise between playability and harmonic complexity and form the basis for most harmony employed in jazz. There are many ways to play them by skipping strings or using drop voicings, the obvious first step however, is to learn them in 3 sets of 4 adjacent strings with the bass note either on the E, A or D-string. The 3 sets are:

1st Set: EADG
2nd Set: ADGB
3rd Set: DGBE

For now we’ll look only at the most common 4-part voicing: The Drop 2 voicing. I found it very comforting to discover that there are 4 ways it can be played on each set of 4 strings – this greatly enhances the possibilities when looking for chord progressions that sound nice or are practical to play. Seventh Chord Inversions are indeed a great tool to facilitate position playing in rythm guitar or for finding satisfactory options for voice leading.

The inversions for this kind of drop voicing (but for any type of seventh chord) will be structured like this on guitar:

Root Position: 1573
1st Inversion: 3715
2nd Inversion: 5137
3rd Inversion: 7351

Lets take a closer look on how exactly a learning/practice session could look like. The obvious step to begin with is choosing which tetrad’s inversions you want to learn first. I would suggest learning the inversions of the dominant chord tetrad first. Also pick a key. It doesnt matter which one – once you know the shapes you can easily transpose them to any key you want.

Start with the first set (E-string in bass). Play the chord with the root in the bass. Then find the 1st Inversion. You can either figure out the notes by knowing their exact positions on the fretboard (absolute approach) or by going up a third to the next chord tone on the fretboard on each string (relative approach). For the latter you must know the intervals of the respective chord to know which third. Use this page to understand each tetrads structure. Continue by finding the 2nd and 3rd Inversion in the same way.

Try to always be aware which note of the fingered chord is the root. If you also know the fifth – even better. If you know all the intervals by heart, thats great! The first few tetrad inversions should look like this:

Once you have them memorized, proceed with the other 2 sets. Once you’re done with that, start practicing them in all keys by going trough the Circle of 4. Also check out the Simplified Versions that allow for more facility in playing and have tons of other advantages as well. As stated previously, my suggestion would be to start learning all inversions for dominant chords. Not only are they the most used chords in jazz, there are also great to improvise over thanks to blues harmony. The latter invites any minor scale with a minor seventh to the jam.

Having fun with Seventh Chord Inversions

Here’s a fun way to practice: Invite a friend over and ask him to practice his scales over you vamping dominant chords in the circle of 4! This would make a great practice routine for both of you. Any of the exercises in the following installation of this series, is applicable to this as well. You can of course do it with other chords too, but Dominant Chords are definitely the most versatile.

Scales that can be practiced over a dominant chord include, but are not limited to:

Both Minor and Major Pentatonics
Dorian Pentatonic (6 instead of b7)
Blues Pentatonic (b5)
Major & Minor Blues Hexatonic

Mixolydian
Dorian
Aeolian
Phrygian

Lydian Dominant
Phrygian Dominant
Mixolydian b6
Phrygian #6/Dorian b2
Altered Scale
Halftone-Wholetone Scale

All this knowledge may also be applied onto other instruments. The tuning of a Bass equals the first set. If you have a 5 string electric bass with the lowest string tuned to B, the shapes of the first set on guitar apply to the BEAD-Set as well and the same is also true for a seven string guitar. The four strings of an Ukulele usually correspond to the Shapes of the 3rd Set on guitar, but the bass note for the inversion is found on the next string, as the one which would be the bass one on guitar is an octave higher on an Uke. If you want to go further on either of those instruments, I encourage you taking a peek at the Tetrad Inversions in the Circle of 4 page whilst always keeping your axes tuning in mind.

Simplifying Inversions

As mentioned in the article about Sound Perception our brain is pretty awesome. Thus, some scale degrees can be ommitted, without the chord loosing its sense to us. This idea can be used to simplify the 4 inversions.
One could for example play all 4 inversions, ommitting the fifth, creating what is called a Shell Voicing. The fifth can mostly be left out without any big consequence. The tonic, third and seventh make up the so called shell of a chord, indicating its two most fundamental natures (What I like to call the primary and secondary nature). The tonic itself could be left out as well. The product is called a Rootless Voicing and it works well in jazz, because the bassist usually plays the root of each chord anyways, so that there is always a context for your notes. Ommitting the seventh gives you a minor or major triad. Finally, there is also the possibility to leave out the third, which creates an ambiguous chord, which is neither major or minor by itself but the context in which it is used may sometimes suffice to indicate it’s nature.

What I like to do is to always ommit the second lowest note of the set, so it looks like this:

1st Set: ExDG
2nd Set: AxGB
3rd Set: DxBE

This gives you the following voicings:

Root Position: 173 (Shell)
1st Inversion: 315 (Triad)
2nd Inversion: 537 (Rootless)
3rd Inversion: 751 (Thirdless)

No matter in which way you choose to simplify chords, the act always serves the same purposes:

• It makes them a lot easier to play. Different fingering possibilities become available as there is one more available finger. Also, chords in higher positions, where the angle of the hand becomes weird become much more playable when simplified. But wait – there is more…!

• Especially in the lower registers, too many notes at once may sound muddy. Sometimes it’s better to drop less bass.

• Simplified Chords are more social. They leave more room for other instruments to play along. Why oversaturate the air with four notes if three do the trick as well. They might also be better suited for singing along to. You dont really need full blown seventh chords all the time. The beforementioned capabilities of the brain allow us to hear implied notes like an ommited fifth. Let the listeners brain do some work – it might even become more interesting this way.

• Creating ambiguity. As mentioned in Sound Perception, we are addicted to both well known patterns and interesting new ones. Ambiguity helps you create the latter.

• Finally, you gain one more finger to use. By playing simplyfied tetrads you may add colourful upper extensions like ninths, elevenths and thirteenths.

Even if the simplified versions of chords seem very neet, it is highly recommended to revisit the 4-note versions from time to time in your practice sessions. It’s important to know where the ommitted note is located in every inversion, and you might still apply the full version in some other situation. This is the case for any old material you base newer material on. Stay tuned for some more fun with tetrads in next weeks upcoming article.