Major Chord Inversion Guitar Lesson

Trying to use these new chord shapes will be daunting at first. The thought of picking up a guitar and playing a 1st inversion Amajor chord that doesn't even have the root on the bottom probably seems impossible. In order to start using these chord shapes more confidently, the key is to know which string the root in each voicing is on. When you have internalized this, you can form the chord shape around that root. Learning major chord inversions this way will make the task of finding the root position chord, and counting up to the proper inversion, unneccessary.

Here is a suggested practice schedule to help you learn these new chords as quickly as possible:

Step 1:

Randomly choose a major chord to work with (E.g. Dmajor)

• Play only the root position chord on each of the four string groups.
• Play root position, 1st inversion, and 2nd inversion chords on each of the four string groups.
• Try playing the chords down the neck starting with root position. E.g. Amajor on 5,4, 3 string group. play root position at twelvth fret, then 2nd inversion on seventh fret, then 1st inversion on fourth fret. Repeat on other strings where possible.
• Try picturing the root position chord shape on each string group, without playing it. Then, play each 1st inversion shape.
• Picture the root position and 1st inversion chord shapes on each string group, then play each 2nd inversion shape.
• Play the 1st inversion major chord shapes on each of the 4 string groups, without playing the root position chord.
• Repeat the above with 2nd inversion chords.