Triad Inversions for the Bass VI

In my last post, we looked at major and minor triads for use when playing chords on the bass VI. Let’s take a look at inversions, and how we can use them play chords as well.

We defined a major triad as the 1-3-5 of a scale played together, in that order. What happens if you play them in a different order? That’s where inversions come in. When the lowest note in a chord isn’t the tonic (the 1 of the scale) then you have an inverted chord.

Inversions are numbered by convention, so the first inversion of a major triad is 3-1-5. This is the third note played first, followed by the rest of the chord. The second inversion is 5-1-3. The second inversion is what I’m going to focus on here, since it still strongly sounds like a full major chord.

Let’s take a look at an A chord shape.

“A Barre Chord Shape”

E A D G B E

_ _ _ _ _ _
_ 1 _ _ _ 5
_ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ 5 1 3 _
_ _ _ _ _ _

The 1-3-5 is in there, like we talked about last week. That can be kind of a thin sounding voicing, though, and isn’t quite as easy for my gigantic bass player hands to fret as the E derived major triad is. But what’s this? That 5-1-3 in the middle, that’d be really easy to play. A single finger barred across three strings plays that second inversion almost effortlessly. And it sounds incredibly rock and roll, as well as being familiar. If you’ve ever heard a Rolling Stones song, you’ve probably heard this chord voicing being used. It’s meaty, strong, and major. This chord is something you’ll get a ton of use out of when playing triad based chords on the bass VI.

Now, take a look at this open G chord shape. See anything familiar? That’s right, our second inversion is in there, exactly the same as it is in the A shape.

“Open G Chord Shape”

E A D G B E

_ _ 5 1 3 _
_ _ _ _ _ _
_ 3 _ _ _ _
1 _ _ _ _ 1
_ _ _ _ _ _

Let’s add in another inversion. Since we just used that G shape, why don’t we find a chord that can be used in a progression with that shape. We haven’t looked at the C shape yet, so let’s chart that out.

“Open C Chord Shape”

E A D G B E

_ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ 5 _ 3
_ _ _ _ 1 _
_ _ 3 _ _ _
_ 1 _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _

If you’re getting a hang of this whole inversion business, you’ll see there are three triads we can pick apart from this chord shape.

“Major triad: 1-3-5”

E A D G B E

_ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ 5 _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ 3 _ _ _
_ 1 _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _

“First inversion: 3-5-1”
E A D G B E

_ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ 5 _ _
_ _ _ _ 1 _
_ _ 3 _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _

“Second inversion: 5-1-3”
E A D G B E

_ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ 5 _ 3
_ _ _ _ 1 _
_ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _

The question becomes, when are you going to use these chords?

That first major triad shape can be pretty muddy, especially when played towards the nut of a bass VI. You’re probably not going to get much use out of that one.

The first inversion is going to be useful when transitioning from the A shaped triad we talked about earlier. If you barre the A shape with your index finger, you can drop your middle and ring fingers down into the first inversion shown above for a new chord. This gives you a I - IV progression. Now that you have all these chord shapes to use, the trick is to start clustering them together in patterns and progressions. What’s convenient for moving from one chord to the next?

The second inversion of this shape is an interesting one to me. You’re playing an open D shape chord with no root! Jumping from the barred A shape second inversion to this second inversion gives you a I - IV progression as well.

Up next, we’ll take a bunch of these triads and start building some common chord progressions out of them, so you can start to see some patterns you can use in your own playing. The bass VI is a peculiar instrument, so some things work really well, while others that might work on guitar don’t.