Chord Inversions

For the ABRSM Grade 5 exam you have to know about chord inversions (got to admit, until about 3 months ago - I didn't even know they existed, despite learning various instruments from primary school age - about 6 years old). At first I struggled but now I think I have the hang of them!

The Chords you have to find for G5 are I, ii, IV and V (always use Roman Numerals!). Now that doesn't mean a thing to anyone until you know the chords! The chords are made up of the Tonic (1st note of the scale), Mediant (3rd note of the scale) and Dominant (5th note of the scale). Let's take a look at C Major...

C D E F G A B C - CEG

Now when working out the inversions that would be a Ia. Let's describe this in a bit more detail to get the inversions (read left to right):

Ia = CEG (root position)
Ib = EGC (first inversion)
Ic = GCE (second inversion)

See how the first letter moves to the end and the other 2 shunt forward to get the different inversions. (I am hoping to add some examples on the stave). Now let's find chord II

Take the second note up from C and do the same as finding the root chord - starting from the D, take the first (D), 3rd (F) and 5th (A):

C D E F G A B C

Now you have a IIa chord -  

iia = DFA (root position)
iib = FAD (first inversion)
iic = ADF (second inversion)

To find chord IV (count 4 notes along from C F and count from the F 3notes and 5 notes to make the chord)

C D E F G A B C

IVa = FAC (root position)
IVb = ACF (first inversion)
IVc = CFA (second inversion)

Now a chord V

C D E F G A B C D  (I have to go beyond the octave at this point)

Va = GBD (root position)
Vb = BDG (first inversion)
Vc = DGB (second inversion)

This works for any scale.

NB I will try and put some examples in which use the notes on the stave as well as the above!