so first of all i'm going to talk about triad inversions these are the most basic form of inversion this is where inversion originates so here i'm playing a c major triad i've got the c the e and the g and this is the basic form of a c major triad but what if i was to put this c up an octave then we would have e as the base note the lowest note in the chord would be an e and this is what's called first inversion i've inverted the chord and it gives us a slightly different sound [Music] now i could do the same thing again i could take the e and put it up an octave and now i'm still playing a c major triad it's the same notes c e and g but now i have g as the base note the lowest note in the chord is a g and this is what's called c major second inversion so we have c major this is root position then we have c major in first inversion with the third in the bass and we have c major in second inversion the same applies to minor chords there's a c minor in root position this is c minor in first inversion the third is the lowest note and then c minor in second inversion the fifth is the lowest note in the chord [Music] now this concept can be applied to larger chords with chord extensions like seventh chords ninth chords and even 11th chords 13th chords so the more extensions the chord has the more inversions you can create is a c minor 7 in root position i'll put the c up an octave this will give us c minor 7 in first inversion i'll do the same again build the chord the same group of notes but put a g as the lowest note it'll give me c minor seven second inversion then finally c minor third inversion with the b flat the seventh and as the base note [Music] so now let's look for a more extreme example let's try and get a fourth inversion we would need a minor nine chord or some sort of ninth chord to create a fourth inversion this but this chord we could call c minor nine in fourth inversion [Music] but you know what it's only common to see up to about third inversion because after that you your ear can start reinterpreting the chord as a different kind of chord so say we had a major nine i put at the ninth in the bass rather than calling this chord c major nine fourth inversion i would just call it some sort of d chord because this is a d sus chord i'm playing a major seven chord over a d which is a good sus4 voicing [Music] now the only thing the only thing that determines which inversion a chord is is which note is in the base of the voicing so if i play a c major up here in this first inversion but then i go and play a c in the bass this chord is just c major root position this is not an inversion because the bass note is the only thing that matters likewise if i play this in second inversion up here the bass note is still a c the root then this is still root position how about if i play root position up here but in the bass i play the third well that makes this chord c major first inversion and that's all that determines whether a chord is in an inversion or not is whichever note is in the bass that's all that counts you can have any sort of voicing it's the base note the note that's lowest in your chord [Music] that determines whether the chord is in root position first inversion second version or even third inversion [Music] let's take another example let's just take two chords got a c minor and a b flat major and let's see how many different sounds we can get from just these two chords by using inversions and also how much movement we can create [Music] so from just two simple chords i've managed to generate quite a complex [Music] feeling of movement [Music] so how is chord inversion useful to us as piano players as composers as arrangers well to answer your question here is me playing a circle of fifths without using any inversion i'm just going to play each chord in root position listen to how it sounds [Music] so i'm jumping all over the place not only is it annoying from a performance point of view i'm having to jump around much more than i need to [Music] but also for the listener it's disruptive to the listening experience hearing these all these kind of cuts it's like if you're watching film there's loads of cuts really disruptive [Music] but now i'm going to play it with chord inversions and listen to how smooth the voice leading is how smooth the result is [Music] so as a result of using chord inversion i've managed to create really smooth voice leading voice leading is each individual note within the chord how does do they move to the next chord are they jagged and jumping up and down or are they just smooth with minimum kind of movement and really what's pleasing to the human ear is to hear small stepwise motion to the next chord [Music] so if you look at my fingers they're really just moving one note at a time [Music] so let's take an example say we have a chord progression of a minor g major and c major well if i just play those three chords in root position [Music] sounds okay the chords are fine but in terms of movement it's not very smooth this big jump from g major to c major so now let's try using inversion to bridge the gap and make some smooth voice leading instead of playing g major in root position what could i do well between a and c is a b and b just happens just so happens to be a note in g major so why don't i play g major but in first inversion [Music] suddenly we have a really smooth chord progression [Music] now let's take a longer chord progression say we had a chord progression that was f major e minor a minor g major c major well if we just play all those chords in root position [Music] chords themselves sound fine but as far as voice leading is concerned that's very jagged i'm jumping up and down let's try using some chord inversion to bridge some of the gaps f major root position instead of playing e minor in root position how about i play e minor in first inversion [Music] that sounds much smoother already [Music] but then i still have a gap for the g major going to the c major so why don't i do the same again why don't i do g major in first inversion now that way i have this stepwise this smooth stepwise motion baseline [Music] [Music] you