thanx but now i'll be sure to hit you up for some cash..ya know for retribution. ;) what i mean by A and G is pluck both the open A and open G strings together and listen to the, i guess, dissonance they make. Then listen for the same sound when you play a full A dominant 7 chord (x02020). Once you get that, then try a dominant chord but with a different root. Take E7 (020100) and listen for a similar quality that exists between A7 and E7. There is a similar sound that exists between all three, that would be the dominant 7th chord quality. It may or may not be faint at first so relax when you listen and accept what you hear (meaning don't look for something that is not there). You'll notice it. All x7 chords will have this same quality to them, even if there in inversion.

Note that identifying chords in inversion is a step further from just recognizing the chord quality itself. So stick with just chords in root position at first, and when you grasp that completely then you'll be ready to discriminate between inversions.