Christopher Schlegel inversion lesson

i have been working on these lessons most of the day (i hate the flu) and im getting a little confussed.

he uses the a major and a minor scales to form the backbone of the lessons that part is understood so far. but my question is the chord shapes he provided do they apply to all the notes (a through g#) and can you keep the same shape and move all the way up or down the neck and hit the right chords?

Originally Posted by: BrokenJerabut my question is the chord shapes he provided do they apply to all the notes (a through g#) and can you keep the same shape and move all the way up or down the neck and hit the right chords?

Absolutely, yes.

The fretboard patterns I put as images at the bottom of the pages show fully movable shapes. Put any given shape on the fretboard and whatever note the circled 1 in on, that is the root note of the chord-inversion, and therefore how it is named. Like this:


E|----------|
B|-5--3--1--|
G|-6--4--2--|
D|-7--5--3--|
A|----------|
E|----------|
A G F

Make sense?

thanks for the help.

i think i was getting confussed on the second inversion of lesson 1. if you played the 1st second inverson on a 7 string guitar at the 2nd fret it would be an open B then going through all of them at the 2nd fret it would be E A D.


but thanks again for the help i better shut up before i confuse my self again.

Originally Posted by: BrokenJera...if you played the 1st second inverson on a 7 string guitar at the 2nd fret it would be an open B then going through all of them at the 2nd fret it would be E A D.

I think we may have a miscommunication issue. :)

You can slide any given shape up and down the same strings on which they originated while maintaining their basic pattern.

You can NOT always move any given shape across to different strings even if maintaining their basic pattern.

The reason this happens is because of the G to B string being tuned at a major 3rd (4 frets apart) instead of the standard 4th (5 frets apart). this causes some "pattern distortion" from the norm. Same if you have a "drop D" tuning or some tuning other than standard.

So you can move like this:

E|----------|
B|-2--4--5--|
G|-2--4--5--|
D|-2--4--5--|
A|----------|
E|----------|
A B C

But not like this:

E|----------|
B|-2--------|
G|-2--2-----|
D|-2--2--2--|
A|----2--2--|
E|-------2--|


Make sense?

yeah i understand that. i also meant that if you use the different inversion not just the first one for the second inversion but all of the second inversion shapes with the root at the second fret (or 3rd).
||--------------------------2---|
||-------------------2------3---|
||-----------1-------2------2---|
||--1--------2-------2----------|
||--2--------2------------------|
||--2---------------------------|

i only meant the patterns look like those chords and not they make moving those chord shapes across the strings the 100% fool proof cheat sheet.

but im still learning and i hope i can always say that i am.

Originally Posted by: BrokenJerayeah i understand that.[/quote]
OK, good deal. :) Thanks for clarifying.

Originally Posted by: BrokenJera...i only meant the patterns look like those chords and not they make moving those chord shapes across the strings the 100% fool proof cheat sheet.

I know a couple of guitarists that tune their guitar in 4ths all the way across (low to high - EADGCF). One of them I think uses a low B string (low to high - BEADGC). Stanely Jorden used to do this, too. I don't know if he still does or not.

Using that alternate tuning results in inversion shapes being exactly the same across the strings (as well as the up and down the strings). So, it is an interesting option to consider. I did it as an experiment many years ago and found it interesting for a while. But ultimately it was more trouble than it was worth to me, personally. This was of course because by time I tried tuning in 4th I had already automatized the standard tuning fretboard patterns.
[QUOTE=BrokenJera]but im still learning and i hope i can always say that i am.

Absolutely. Me, too.