Chords and inversions

Chord inversions are simply different ways of fretting chords where the root note is not always played as the lowest string. These are then alternative ways of playing the same chord that prove very useful in jazz and which are widely used. In Manouche jazz, some inversions are particularly used (see Chords section). What you'll find here is a rather exhaustive vision of 4-note chords inversions (it's quite unusual to do 5-note chords inversion on guitar) but using a graphic display. It is not mandatory to know them all by heart, especially given that some of those shapes are really hard to fret (7M mostly). Pick and choose as usual.

m6 and m7/5b (half-diminished) chords

Only Gm6 inversions (Em7/5b) on 4 adjacent strings and in drop-2 are displayed.

On strings D-G-B-E:


On strings A-D-G-B:


On strings A-G-B-E:


On strings E-D-G-B:


On strings E-A-D-G:

m7 and 6 chords

Only Gm7 inversions (A#6) on 4 adjacent strings and in drop-2 are displayed.

On strings D-G-B-E:


On strings A-D-G-B:


On strings A-G-B-E:


On strings E-D-G-B:


On strings E-A-D-G:

7 chords

Only G7 inversions on 4 adjacent strings and in drop-2 are displayed.

On strings D-G-B-E:


On strings A-D-G-B:


On strings A-G-B-E:


On strings E-D-G-B:


On strings E-A-D-G:

7M chords

Only G7M inversions on 4 adjacent strings and in drop-2 are displayed.

On strings D-G-B-E:

This alternative inversion will be preferred in first position:


On strings A-D-G-B:


On strings A-G-B-E:


On strings E-D-G-B:


On strings E-A-D-G:

Diminished chords

Only Gdim inversions on 4 adjacent strings and in drop-2 are displayed. These are probably the easiest inversions to remember.

On strings D-G-B-E:


On strings A-D-G-B:


On strings A-G-B-E:


On strings E-D-G-B:


On strings E-A-D-G: