The 1st Inversion Triad

Now let’s have a little fun with chord inversions.

We’ve learned earlier about “root” position chords, i.e. chords built on the tonic note.
Now let’s learn about inverting the chord position. For example, a G chord in root position is G B D. Now let’s invert the chord to its’ 1st position: B D G. In this voicing, the B note is on the bottom, the middle note is now a D note and the octave G is sounded for the third note of the triad. We now observe the “color” tone is at the bottom. Let’s build a few 1st inversion triads.

C: E G C
D: F# A D
E: G# B E
F: A C F
A: C# E A
Bb: D F Bb

Now sound the notes from a root position followed by the 1st inversion:
G: G B D B D G
A: A C# E C# E A
Play with this until you can easily perform this in the “bluegrass keys”.