Introduction to Music Theory: Inversions of Chords Inversion of Chords All of the chords in the previous section were in root

position, which means that they all have the root of the chord as the lowest note. This is the simplest, most stable form for a chord. However, if another note of the chord is in the bass, or lowest voice, we say the chord is inverted. When the third of the chord is the lowest pitch, the chord is in rst inversion. When the fth of the chord is in the bass, it is in second inversion. Seventh chords, which have another note left, are in third inversion when the seventh is the lowest pitch. In the baroque period, musicians used a chord notation called gured bass. Just as jazz and rock musicians use Pop/Jazz Chord symbols today, Baroque musicians used gured bass to tell them what chords to use when improvising and accompanying. These added, improvised chords are called a realization.These gured bass symbols are the basis for the inversion symbols we use with roman numerals in order to represent chords. Figured bass indicates the bass note and the intervals above that note. A root position triad has a third (3) and a fth (5) above the bass note, so its gured bass symbol is: a 5 above a 3. The following chart lists all of the full, gured bass and inversion symbols for all inversions. Since root position chords are so common, and musicians have a tendency to be lazy, the numbers "3" and "5" were eventually assumed to be there, and omitted. In seventh chords, only two numbers are required to show what position the chord is in, so the 6 is omitted. This is why our modern inversion symbols are slightly different than the full, gured bass. These inversion symbols, when combined with a roman numeral and a key: give all the information needed to gure out what the notes of the chord are and what the bass (lowest) note is. Memorize this chart:

Introduction to Music Theory: Inversions of Chords

The arrangement of the notes above the bass note is the only thing not specied by the inversion symbols and gured bass. It makes no difference at all how the pitchs are arranged in this style, as long as all the correct pitch classes are present.

A realized gured bass may look like this (only the black notes are printed, the performer reads these and performs, for example, the blue notes).:

When an accidental needs to be added to a note, the accidental is added before the number that indicates that pitch's interval above the bass. For example, the rst B-natural in the following example is a sixth (plus an octave -- gured bass does not include octaves) above the bass, so the 6 has a natural before it. The A-natural in measure 2 is on the fth of the chord. When the fth (normally omitted) has an accidental, it must not be omitted but written with the added accidental. Notice that the B-natural in the bass on beat two of the second measure does not need any gure -- since the natural is already present, bass notes with accidentals have no additional gures. The third above the bass, however, is a commonly altered interval, so lazy musicians have often used only an accidental with no number to specify an altered third. Finally, since in minor keys raised note accidentals are frequent and common, musicians have used the faster "slash" notation to specify a raised note. A slash through a number indicates that you should raise that note one half-step (by adding whatever accidental, sharp, at, double sharp, double at, or natural), while an accidental before a number means to add that specic accidental to the pitch.

Introduction to Music Theory: Inversions of Chords

Figured bass, combined with Roman Numeral analysis, provides a complete method of specifying a harmony so that one may discuss how it functions. Labeling the chords is the rst step, and is shown in an example below. After labeling these chords, then the harmonic function may be examined, which is the topic of a following section.

Chords are not always so easy to see and identify. Chorales offer the simplest way of seeing and hearing these harmonies, and so are most often used in theory examples. However, composers present these chords in a variety of different manners in musical practice. This is the topic of the next section.