Feeling Tense About Tensions?

by Chris Tarry

Pages: 1 · 2 · 3

A great way to get all this chord and tension stuff down is to practice them using arpeggios. Arpeggios simply mean playing the chord tones in order, one at a time, instead of all together. By doing this, we notice that there are four different ways we can play them in order. These are called inversions.

Remember, just chord tones here.

1) 1, 3, 5, 7 Starting with the root. It’s called root position.
2) 3, 5, 7, 1 Starting with the 3rd. This is called 1st inversion.
3) 5, 7, 1, 3 Starting with the 5th. This is called 2nd inversion.
4) 7, 1, 3, 5 Starting with the 7th. This is called 3rd inversion.

If I said to you, “Arpeggiate me a CMaj 7 chord in 1st inversion”... you’d then play me E, G, B, C

Here is a Cmaj7 arpeggio with all it's inversions.