Guidelines for Using Inversions
The chords C, F and G correspond to the first, fourth and fifth notes of the C major scale. For this reason they are known as chords 1, 4 and 5 in the key of C. As you have seen in the previous pages, there are three inversions for each major chord. When using the inversions of the chords C, F and G in the key of C, or chords 1, 4 and 5 in any key, there are some general guidelines for finding inversions which are close together. These are shown in the chart below.
Example 14 on the previous page demonstrated the use of the first group of inversions beginning with C as a root position chord. The following examples deal with the second and third groups. Example 15 begins with C as a 1st inversion chord, which means that F will be root position and G will be 2nd inversion.
This one uses the third group of inversions, i.e. C is 2nd inversion, F is 1st inversion and G is root position. It is important to memorize these groupings as you will use them together many times regardless of the style of music you are playing.
