HONE YOUR SKILLS
CHORD INVERSIONS EXPLORED
The great Steve Lawson brings us a new approach to studying bass at beginner level. The journey begins...
Welcome! This month we’re going to look at ways to use the notes in the chord other than the root as our bass note. The term for putting a note other than the root in the bass of a chord is a chord inversion. Ready?
Let’s recap how we construct chords in a given key. Starting on any note in the key as the root of our chord, we play the next two alternate notes above it in the scale to give us the third and fifth. For example, in C Major, starting on C, we get C, E, and G to make a C Major chord. Normally, we’d start by playing the C in the bass, because the root is our first port of call for constructing a bass-line—but there are quite a few occasions when the music presents an opportunity to use one of the other notes instead of the root. This can be to make a bass-line smoother, or just because a particular chord shape sounds better to us in that situation. Remember, any rules like this are only an invitation to explore in a certain area. What we decide we like is a matter for our own taste!
Let’s try an example chord progression and introduce some chord inversions to change the bass-line. We’ll begin with a line with just the roots in the bass.